Weather the Storm
by anjumstar
Summary: Somewhat AU. 18 years following the takedown of Team Rocket, 36-year-old Ash Ketchum randomly disappears only to be declared murdered. His 18 year-old daughter, heartbroken by her father's death and her mother's tears, goes back in time to prevent the events leading to her father's death in the future. AAMRN. OC/OC.
1. Crying Buckets

**Weather the Storm**

**Summary:** 18 years following the take-down of Team Rocket, 36-year-old Ash Ketchum randomly disappears only to be declared murdered. His 18 year-old daughter, heartbroken by her father's death and her mother's tears, goes back in time to prevent the events leading to her father's death in the future.

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight Rocketshipping; James/Jessie, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence. Oh, and Ash and Misty are very, erhm, close in this fic. So if that kind of AAML relationship turns you away, then maybe this isn't the story for you.

**Ages:** Ash and Misty are 36, but for the majority of the story and flashbacks they are 18. Drew and May are a year or two younger, Brock is a couple years older. Flashbacks take place in modern day. My OCs are 18.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs Ilse (pronounced Ilsa), Noah, and Sophie. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Know that this is a Next Generation OC fic. Most of the story is told from the perspective of her. But the story does surround Ash and Misty, so don't worry. :) Now on with the show!

* * *

**Crying Buckets**

Ilse sat fixed in the Cerulean library, furiously flipping page after page, book after book. Words danced in front of her eyes, barely registering as she just glared at the crease. Out of the corner of her eye, two figures shifted, one moving out of her line of sight, the other approaching cautiously, and sitting down beside her.

"Noah's been asking about you."

The last page billowed as it settled on the rest of the book, rustling slightly when Ilse released a breath of relief. She glanced up slowly, her long black hair covering her face. "Is he gone?"

Sophie nodded in reply, twirling a rebellious strand of green hair, chuckling, "I know that Noah is probably just about the last thing that you need right now, so I shooed him away." She paused, gauging Ilse's response before saying softly, "You know that you can't hide out in the library forever, though."

Ilse absentmindedly toyed with the corner of the page of the book, crinkling it between her fingers. "I know," she said, looking at her best friend's green eyes. "I just need to be here right now."

Sophie didn't say another word of it. This was why Ilse loved her. Sophie was the only one that was there for her through all this, not just throwing the standard pity-look her way whenever eye contact was made in passing.

"You wanna get out of here?" Sophie suggested. "I'm sure that you can only study for so long."

And there was another reason.

Half a smile graced Ilse's features. "Yeah." She stood up, leaving behind not only the still open book that she'd been scouring, but stacks upon stacks still strewn on the table. She took Sophie's arm in her own, looking down at her shoes to avoid the curious eyes piercing through her.

* * *

"Move out of our way!" Sophie spat, elbowing someone blindly in the gut as she pushed their way through the clambering crowd of reporters. It always amazed Ilse how Sophie could change personalities at the drop of a hat. Even though she was a few years younger than her, Sophie commanded attention in a way that Ilse had never seen before. "Shit, people, have a little respect, why don't you?" They finally pushed their way up the stairs to the front door of Ilse's house, quickly opening the door, and consequently slamming it shut, crushing a Channel 9 microphone in half in the process.

Sophie brushed herself off, smirking a little as she kicked the mangled microphone head across the floor in the vague direction of a trash can. She promptly plopped herself down on a stool in the kitchen and leaned her elbows on the cold counter. The smirk had fallen from her face, now replaced with a somber expression. "Anything new?" she asked softly.

Ilse sighed, fiddling with things in the kitchen before she even gave herself a chance to put her backpack down. "No. But given that my mom is gone right now and not teary-eyed, flipping through old photo albums on the couch, I can guess that there'll probably be something else on the case soon," Ilse said as she chopped an apple particularly forcefully, making Sophie wince.

Just then, the front door burst open, the din of all of the reporters carrying easily into the kitchen, announcing someone's arrival into the Ketchum house.

"That's probably her," Ilse exclaimed as she ran to the front door, dropping the forgotten knife to the ground, just missing her own feet. Sophie followed after taking a moment to look wearily at her friend before putting the knife in the sink.

In the living room, Ilse and Sophie found a red-headed woman with a yellow mouse on her shoulder and a brunette by her side, followed by a police officer.

"Mom?" Ilse squeaked out, trying not to let hope shine through from her wide green eyes.

Misty glanced back at Officer Jenny, whose face was eerily devoid of expression. "Why don't we all sit down," she suggested. Everyone complied, turning to Jenny once they were settled.

"Alright, let's start by briefly reviewing the report so far," she started. "Four days ago, you're husband, Ash Ketchum," she added, turning to Misty, "suddenly went missing. We found no sign of intrusion or any form of breaking and entering into the house, nor were there any reports of suspicious activity in the area. This suggested that Ash may have left of his own volition, presumably in the middle of the night. There were no leads as to where he could be or any real motive of a hypothetical attacker. Until now.

"Of course, we all spent some time theorizing and imagining the worst, given Ash's past misshapes with malicious organizations. Murder wasn't in any way out of the question, despite the relative peace that you've lived in for the past few years. Unfortunately now there's no question." Jenny paused, examining the faces in front of her, sighing as she continued. "A body was found."

Ilse's body went rigid. She saw her mother's face immediately harden and her grandmother leaned over to embrace Misty, softly stroking her hair and cooing motherly assurances in her ear. She felt Sophie's soothing touch on her shoulder, but everything else went by in a haze. Words ran over her, not really making sense, not even really sounding like words. In the end, Jenny got up from the couch, murmured her condolences, hugging Misty, Delia, even Pikachu, and finally Ilse after she robotically stood up.

Misty's still glassy eyes turned to Ilse, and she managed a watery, "Baby," her voice cracking as she opened her arms to her daughter. She hugged her mom, feeling her mother's heaving sobs as she focused all her energy on fighting a losing battle to keep her breathing normal.

"Baby," Misty tried again, "are you okay here with Sophie? I think I need to have a moment."

Ilse nodded into her mother's shoulder, letting her go and watching her walk up the stairs with Delia shortly behind her. Ilse slowly, mechanically, turned back forward to the wall. She stopped abruptly, freezing in an instant as a picture of a young Ash Ketchum caught her eye on the wall. He looked so vivacious and full of life—like nothing could strike him down. Her breathing immediately sped up, and she found herself hyperventilating, backing slowly away from the picture as fresh tears stung her eyes.

"Ilse?" Sophie started hesitantly, reaching out to touch her shoulder again.

Before she got the chance, Ilse whipped around, and flew out the front door, shoving through the throng of reporters before they knew what hit them, leaving Sophie in the doorway trying to push them back down the stairs.

Ilse ran, not having the faintest clue where she was going. The only thought running through her head was the dark mantra of, _My father is dead. My father is dead. My father is dead..._with every pounding step of her feet. Before long, she made it to the door of another house; one without reporters and without people giving her pitying looks. Before she even got the chance to knock on the door, it swung open, and she crumpled into the arms of the one holding it.

"Noah," she mumbled into his now tearstained shirt. Taking a breath, she grasped both his arms in her shaking hands and looked up to him with watery green eyes. "Make me forget."

* * *

Ilse woke up with a pounding behind her puffy eyes that only could come from hours of crying herself to sleep and in an instant the world's weight fell on top of her. _My father is dead._

She peeled open her crusty eyes to find her second crushing realization of the day.

This wasn't her room.

She'd slept with him.

Again.

At just that moment, Noah decided to waltz into his room. His blue hair was wet and he was wearing nothing but a towel around his waist. His brown eyes widened slightly when he noticed her eyes open and making a weak attempt at glaring at him.

"You're awake," he noted.

Ilse rolled her eyes and made a move to get out of bed before she realized that her clothes were strewn about the room and that the only thing covering her naked person was a blanket. Noah looked at her, deciding to take a moment to stare her down awkwardly and watch her face turn from a soft fuchsia to a glowing vermillion before stepping out of his room and closing the door.

Sighing in relief, Ilse hopped out of bed and had only just started recollecting all her clothes from the night before, prepping herself for a walk of shame, before Noah's voice rang through the door.

"I heard about your dad."

She froze as her blood ran cold for the second time that morning at the reminder. _My father is dead._ She hardened her face with resolve and chose not to respond.

"It's on the front page of the newspaper and it's all over every television station."

Again, no response.

Noah let out an audible sigh through the door. "Just thought I'd warn you."

A fully dressed Ilse threw open the door, leaving Noah, who had been leaning against it, to reach blindly at the air as he fell towards the floor. He managed to grasp onto her arm, which seemed to spark with electricity from his touch. She blushed again, maintaining a scowl on her face and yanked him up.

"No need to warn me," Ilse said flippantly. "I've got everything taken care of."

Noah arched his eyebrow at her. He recognized that face. Stubbornness was the Ketchum family's strongest trait. "I sincerely doubt that you have everything taken care of."

"I do."

"Don't."

"Do."

"Don't."

"Noah!"

"Fine!" he conceded. "What are you talking about?"

"I have a plan," she stated. "A plan that will get us through this. First, though, I have to go somewhere."

And just like that she flipped her long black hair in his incredulous face and marched right past him. After a few steps, she paused and turned back toward him. "Thank you for last night, Noah." She paused for dramatic effect. "But it was a mistake that won't be repeated.

* * *

It was times like these that Ilse thanked Mew that she had a Flying Pokémon that could carry her. This way, she could avoid all the people who wanted to give her their condolences, tell their stories of how they met Ash in his younger days and how the world was a worse place without him. She could get from Point A to Point B without even having to see them as anything more than little specks from her vantage point in the sky. Soon enough, mountains filled her vision and shortly after, a small town. She called for her Pidgeot to swoop down.

They landed softly in front of the Pewter City Gym. Ilse reached for the doorbell before recalling her Pokémon or even hopping off it. The heavy stone doors slid roughly to either side in an instant, revealing a long hallway that Ilse had traversed many a time. She entered and began meandering through. Eventually she was greeted with the sight of the Slate's kitchen and a frilly apron-adorned Brock scurrying about the kitchen, trying to meet the many breakfast requests of his children. Everything would have looked normal were it not for the sullen expression on everyone's faces and the prominent bags under Brock's eyes.

"Uncle Brock?"

Just like that, everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at her. Great. Out of the frying pan and into the fire.

"Hey, kid," he greeted, trying to sound upbeat.

She cleared her throat, waving awkwardly at the various cousins that were all staring at her. "Uncle Brock, if you're not too busy right now, could we chat for a bit?"

Brock looked around at the children for just a moment before he untied his apron and handed it off to his eldest son. He ushered her into the living room and sat down across from her. Neither said anything for a few minutes.

"Your mom called me. She's been wondering where you are."

Ilse looked down at the ground. "I figured as much."

Brock nodded. "Out of curiosity, why are you here instead of at home?"

"I have some questions for you." Brock tilted his head at her. "I would've asked mom, but she's…not doing so well." Ilse shook her head to clear it. "Anyway, I want to know about when you, my mom, and my dad destroyed Team Rocket."

Brock chuckled a little to himself. He'd seen this coming for a long time. Straightening up, he turned to face her. "What do you want to know?"

* * *

**A/N:** Well? What do you guys think? I have been working on this story for months and months. I didn't want to publish it until the story is fully finished because I always go back and edit things as I write more. And I was afraid that I would never finish it. And I hate unfinished fics. But at this point I have 12 chapters finished and I feel that I can do this. But I didn't want to finish the story without getting some feedback. So please leave reviews telling me if you're interested in this story!

Cover photo courtesy of the wonderful MiyaToriaka on Deviantart!


	2. Water Under the Bridge

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs Ilse (pronounced Ilsa), Noah, and Sophie. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Essentially this whole chapter is a flashback. Intermittently there will be commentary that is present day, but they will be distinguished as _italic_ vs. non italic respectively.

* * *

**Water Under the Bridge**

It was an interesting question. What did she want to know? Ash and Misty had always been very open about their travels and adventures from their younger days, but this one in particular had always been shrouded in mystery. Ilse had always figured that her parents would tell her the whole story one day, but now it seemed like that would never happen. She turned to her Uncle Brock, realizing that she had been quiet for quite some time and gave him a look of resolution. "Everything. I want to know everything."

Brock smiled. He had been more or less expecting such a reply. This being Ash and Misty's child, he didn't even know why he bothered asking. He took a deep breath in and then dove into the whole tale.

"When the three of us were younger and first traveling together, Team Rocket was a non-threatening crime organization that was involved in illegal Pokémon stealing and trading at their worst. They were that way for years. When your parents were about fifteen, Team Rocket as we knew it, under Giovanni, disbanded. Eventually, however, they were reunited under a new leader and their practices shifted. By the time your parents were eighteen, they had become violent, stealing not only Pokémon, but kidnapping people as well, forcing them into recruitment or taking them as test subjects."

Ilse grimaced, sucking in a breath as she imagined the horrors.

"Eventually we all got sick of it. You father isn't—" Brock stopped abruptly, eyes widening for a moment before he corrected himself, "—wasn't one to sit around. For a while, police would just work on individual cases, but at that point, the crimes had been going on for a few years and were only getting worse; more extreme measures had to be taken. At the time, Ash was the Champion, and while his job was usually to be sent on dangerous missions, this one was seen as too high profile to be sent on such a mission, so instead they sent Ash's friend Ritchie and some others…"

Brock looked down at the floor, and Ilse could guess what happened next. "Oh…" she murmured.

"Yeah," Brock continued. "Anyway, so by that point, Ash had had enough sitting back and decided to take matters into his own hands."

* * *

_"I quit."_

_Ash was busy circling the room and tossing things into his backpack. His room was trashed and scoured for anything that he deemed useful enough to fling into the growing pile on his bed. It was obvious that he had made this decision just a couple hours ago, at most. Misty rolled her eyes and snatched the backpack from off of his bed, handing it to Brock, who had just collapsed onto a chair. "Ash, this is crazy. Who quits being Champion?"_

_"I do," Ash replied to Misty curtly, walking over and grabbing his bag back. "I have to finish this job before things get even more out of hand."_

_The resolve was evident on his face as he put all his weight on top of his bag, trying to shove the overflowing items back in. _

_Brock tried again. "Ash, have you even thought this through? Do you have any sort of strategy?" he asked, familiar with Ash's brash way of running head on into any situation without a plan._

_"As a matter of fact, I—"_

_Ash's bedroom door burst open, and May and Drew popped in. "Hey, guys!" May chirped cheerfully. "We're here and ready to go…" She saw Brock and Misty's weary faces and paused. _

_"Or maybe we'll chill out in the hallway," Drew suggested and they exited the way they entered._

_Misty turned back to Ash, a wry smile on her face. "You were intending on having us all go along with you on your scheme, weren't you?"_

_Ash shrugged his shoulders, holding back a sheepish smile. "Uh, yeah. We're a team."_

_Misty stood up and put her hand out. "Well I'm in."_

_Ash grinned and put his hand on top of hers._

_Brock gaped, looking back and forth between the two younger teens, beginning to look like a bobble head. After a moment, he lowered his gaze and walked over to put his hand in. "Me too."_

* * *

"So basically, Ash sprung the whole thing on us. The five of us were set to ship out the next day along with Gary Oak as well as Jessie and James, who were ex-Rockets at that point. We had to work out our plan, though, before we just jumped into the Team Rocket headquarters with targets on our chests."

* * *

_Ash was busy pacing back and forth, weaving through everyone seated in the living room. He was reading through a scribbled list of bullet points and running his fingers through his hair, leaving it more disheveled than usual. _

_"Okay," Ash started. "We have to be very careful with this whole operation."_

_Misty snorted, covering her mouth and turning away from Ash as he glowered at her. "What?" he asked._

_She shrugged. "Oh, no, it's nothing. Just, you know, the thought of you telling us to be careful is kind of amusing."_

_Ash shoved her head to the side and continued. "So, as I was saying," he turned to glare at Misty again, "we're not authorized to do this. One wrong move and we're convicted of manslaughter. Or, you know, dead._

_"We have to get in and get out. Hopefully we can just put everybody to sleep long enough that we can rescue the kidnapped and capture the Rockets. Remember, though: The Masked Man* is our goal. The way to finish this thing is to leave them without a leader. We can fight anyone off with Pokémon, but don't do anything more than knock them out."_

_Everyone nodded lazily in agreement, already having heard the spiel a few time before. _

_"Alright, then. Let's go."_

* * *

"Admittedly it was a simple plan, but it turned out to be rather effective. The simplicity was the genius of it. It was impossible to screw up. Almost."

* * *

_Nothing could be seen but dark, gloomy forest in every direction. No matter how you squinted your eyes, trying to focus your vision on any shadowy object flying through the trees, the trees were as far as you got. Leaves crunched underfoot, making their steps jerky as they swiveled from side to side, staying alert to all the sounds._

_The Team Rocket base was deep in the woods—that much they knew. It was where it could be completely hidden from the prying eyes of the outside world. They had been walking for what seemed like hours, going deeper and deeper into the forest, the edge nowhere in sight._

_"Are you sure that we're going the right way?" May whispered to the two leading the party._

_Jessie's face turned sour. "What? Don't think that we know where we're going? Don't trust—"_

_"Well," James cut Jessie off, "in all fairness, we are just kind of grasping at straws here."_

_"Wha—?" May started to shout before finding herself being shushed and her mouth covered by Drew. _

_"Stay quiet!" Drew reprimanded softly with a quick flip to his hair. "The Rockets are going to be on guard for us so don't make a sound. Look, _we_ don't have any clue where we're going and if they have even the slightest idea then we have to just keep going."_

_Gary rolled his eyes at his bickering peers. In his opinion, getting lost was by no means the worst case scenario for this little expedition Ash had dragged them all into. Additionally, at this point they were miles into the forest, so they didn't have much choice other than to continue trekking forward._

_Hours passed, their slow-going making it so they only traveled maybe ten miles, or so. Now it was almost completely dark, the trees blocking out what little sunlight managed to penetrate the wall of branches. The group was weary and not nearly as alert as they were when they first started out. At this point they had fallen into a comfortable rhythm and total silence, save the occasional rustle of plants and twigs beneath their shoes._

Crunch.

_It sounded from just past their little group. Everyone stopped abruptly, glancing either way for any sign of movement, but the lack of light obstructed them from seeing anything. _

_"Pikachu," Ash whispered. Pikachu was the only Pokémon out, just so that there was less to see, less to draw attention to. Any Pokémon not common to woodland areas would attract immediate suspicion. At this point, it was too late to release any Pokémon that could survey the area, so they had to rely on Pikachu's heightened senses to hopefully find whatever had made that sound. _

_Gingerly, Pikachu hopped from Ash's shoulder and crawled low through the brush in the direction of the sound. Everyone else stayed frozen, almost too afraid to breathe, only risking silent shallow breaths, and not so much as a flicker of their eyes in a different direction. They may not be able to see in the dark, but there was no telling what kind of equipment the Rockets could have on hand. _

_Before long, Pikachu was back, crawling up Ash's side before finding its place back on his shoulder and chattering in his ear. Ash grimaced and muttered under his breath to the group, "Grunts."_

_The compound was close._

* * *

"I don't know how, but we managed to make it out of the woods and into the Rocket compound without getting caught by the Grunts. Ash and Misty, and Drew and May split up to find The Masked Man, leaving Jessie, James, and myself to gather all of those in need of rescuing. Gary was stayed outside. Unfortunately, things inside didn't go very smoothly."

* * *

_"Oh my gosh!" May cried out. "They're everywhere! You'd think that they were expecting us, or something!"_

_Drew grunted as he dove out of the way of a stray Attack. "Didn't I say that earlier? Of course they were expecting round two after Ritchie's crew came in."_

_They ran blindly down the hallway, fighting to get out of sight of the Rockets trailing behind them. Occasionally, one of them would yell out Attacks that would delay the Rockets. May used Wartortle to spray Water Attacks, pushing them back temporarily. Drew would use Masquerain similarly, while also adding on Flying Attacks._

_"I just wish that our plan didn't include us practically having to run over to the Rockets and ask them if they're alright," May shouted back, fingering Blaziken's PokéBall impatiently. What she wouldn't give to just blow them away instead of resorting to the same handful of feeble Attacks that humans could take. "I just hope that the others are doing better than we are," May huffed out. "Do you think that we're going in the right way?"_

_"How the hell would I know?" _

* * *

"There were way more Grunts than we had anticipated. It wasn't that we couldn't have taken them on—I guess we'll never know now. It just wasn't a part of the plan. May and Drew, and Ash and Misty were just supposed to run through the battle ground as quickly as possible and get to the leader."

* * *

_Ash fumbled behind him for Misty's hand, as they scrambled down the hallway. There were Grunts everywhere, in every room, behind every corner. And they weren't just using Pokémon. They had guns. _

_They had made it deep into the compound. The corridors all looked the same; doors were equidistant from each other, only marked with simple room number tags beside them. No windows on the walls or doors. Whenever a door was yanked open by a gang of attacking Grunts, they would make note of where they were and the kind of room behind the door. So far, they'd made it past the stomach churning lab rooms and what appeared to be various training and artillery rooms. Now, they'd made it to offices. They were almost there._

_"Okay," Misty said, gasping for air as they darted into a deserted hallway. "I say we Hail Mary it. Spray straight Sleep Powder into the vents and hope that that gets dispersed throughout most of the building within a few minutes; we'll have to wait it out. It'll hit us, but if we use an Awakening right away, maybe we'll…"_

_She didn't even get a chance to finish before Ash ripped off a vent cover and released a PokéBall inside it. "Sleep Powder!" Ash whispered urgently to Bulbasaur, who was wriggling through the airway._

_"No, Ash!" Misty cried out as the pale blue powder began pouring out of the vent. "We'll get hit too!"_

_"Put this in your mouth," he said, shoving an Awakening in her face as he inhaled from his own. He pulled her into the nearest room and they sat up against the door as they watched blue powder begin to fall around them._

_Now it was time to wait._

* * *

"Perhaps it was not their most well thought out plan. The Sleep Powder hit us all, knocking us out immediately. Fortunately, all of us that were inside happened to be in positions of relative safety: no Grunts directly around us while we were asleep. We were only lucky that all those years of getting hit by Sleep Attacks when we were younger helped us wake before most of the Rockets."

* * *

_"Damn," Brock cursed, rubbing his eyes as he got up from his impromptu nap. "That better have been the others and not the Rockets trying to catch us."_

_A moment later he realized that he was just talking to himself that that the former Team Rocket duo was still out cold on the ground. He slapped them both in the face, relishing the moment—despite their recent friendship—and lifted their bodies up. _

_"Alright, let's do one last run-through of this wing and make sure that there's no more people that we need to rescue and get the hell out of here before Ash does something stupid and blows the whole place up," Brock said. He paused for a moment, pondering the words he just said as his face paled. If he knew Ash, that wasn't an impossibility…_

_"Hurry!"_

* * *

"We managed to get out all of the people we could find that were trapped in the compound against their will. Then, it was just me, Jessie, James, and Gary waiting outside for the others to come out. If they would come out."

* * *

_"Mama…?" May mumbled drowsily as she slowly came to. She blinked her eyes rapidly to focus her blurred vision and was met with the sight of Drew drooling on the ground. Smiling and taking a mental picture, May leaned over and shook him awake. _

_"What happened?" Drew started before shaking his head, clearing his thoughts. "Oh, right, Sleep Powder." His eyes widened as he leapt up, bringing May along with him and they started running again. "We have no idea how much time we lost," he said by means of explanation._

_May nodded her head in agreement, hurrying after him. They still had no idea where they were going, but they had to get there quick._

* * *

_Ash and Misty sat stoically against the door; when bullets resounded in the hallway they didn't even take a breath. They hadn't moved an inch, save to take occasional glances at their watches. Misty turned sideways to look at Ash. "Think enough time has passed?"_

_Ash nodded, getting up and using the doorknob as leverage. He gave Misty his hand and he yanked her up as well. They cautiously opened the door just a crack, peeking through in search of Grunts. Finding none, they crept out slowly before making a break for it, picking up Pikachu and Bulbasaur along the way. Pikachu gave Ash a pointed look of annoyance at being left asleep in the hallway. _

_They were quickly reaching the end of the hallway, offices appearing to get larger and larger as they went. This had to be the right way. They slowed their pace down to a quick but stealthy walk as they approached the last door so as not to make any noise. Then, they were standing right in front of the door. Ash reached out and slowly tried the knob. It wiggled slightly, but not enough to give; it was locked._

_"Damn," Ash said under his breath._

_"Don't worry," Misty reassured him, "We can just pick the…"_

_Before she knew it, Ash had called out Quilava and already requested an Ember Attack._

_"…lock," Misty finished, covering her mouth so she wouldn't inhale the smoke and soot that once was the door. _

_Through the smoldering doorway, was a simple desk and a man sitting behind it._

_A masked man._

_"Looking for something?"_

_The Masked Man stood up from behind his desk and stared coolly at both Ash and Misty. Or at least that's what it looked like; it was hard to tell through the mask. _

_"Hmm, who'd have thought that he actually wears the mask?" Misty commented._

_Ash ignored her and took a step toward the Team Rocket leader. "As a matter fact, we were. We're here to stop you"_

_Misty conspicuously face-palmed. Way to be obvious, Ash._

_"And just how do you plan on—"_

_"Pikachu, Thunder Wave!" Ash shouted, cutting him off._

_This clearly caught The Masked Man off guard, he hastily made a move to get out of range of the Attack, or find some way to Counter it, but Pikachu was too quick. The man was immediately stopped in his tracks, frozen to the spot._

_Just then, Drew and May skidded to a stop behind Ash and Misty, surveying the scene._

_"Guess they found him," May said quietly. _

_"Butterfree!"Drew called out. "Use Teleport to send him outside!"_

_But before Butterfree even emerged from its PokéBall, The Masked Man disappeared._

* * *

"They didn't have any clue what happened. It's not like Butterfree could have used Teleport while it was in its 'Ball, but what else could have happened? They were hoping that was the case, when they finally made their way outside. But that's not what they found."

* * *

_Ash, Misty, May, and Drew made their way slowly from the Rocket compound. They exited pretty cleanly, only coming across a few groups of Grunts wanting to take them on. Now, they were walking up a hill toward Brock, Gary, Jessie, and James, as well as just a few people waiting their turn to be carried to the hospital. _

_"Hey, you guys!" Brock shouted over as he spotted the rest of the group. "Did you find him?"_

_"Uh, kinda," Ash started. "We were kind of hoping that he was out here, though."_

_Gary turned a scrutinizing look to Ash. "Why on earth would you think that?"_

* * *

"And then they told us what happened. Or at least what they saw. It was like he had just vanished into thin air. It turned out that his whole goal at the time was to capture a Celebi and take advantage of its time travel powers. Apparently, he'd finally succeeded, and that's how he disappeared.

It seemed, though, that our mission was successful. We'd saved those that needed saving, most of the remaining Rockets were put in jail, and they were left without a leader. That was the plan, and all things considered, it went off surprisingly well for how thin a concept the whole thing was." Brock smiled.

"We knew that it was time travel when a few minutes later The Masked Man showed up out of the blue and tried to take your dad out. Luckily we were all there to help fight him off, but he injured your dad pretty badly. Had he had your dad one on one, it probably would have been different." Brock paused. "Only problem is that now," he continued softly, a grave expression on his face, "I suspect The Masked Man is the one who killed your father."

* * *

Ilse had thanked Brock and left. It was a lot to take in. Years ago her parents and some of their friends had taken down a whole murderous crime organization. That much seemed about on par with the other stories that she had been told. But now it was eighteen years later and her father was dead.

_My father is dead._

She shook her head clear. They should have just finished the job when they had a chance. Those people had taken innocent civilians and used them as lab rats! They deserved to rot in hell, not in a city jail. And the main goal was to take advantage of a time traveling Pokémon.

Her head shot up.

She had an idea.

* * *

**A/N:** Okay, this chapter is kind of a strange style. There will be other flashbacks in the story, but not nearly as many as there are in this chapter. So, tell me what you think of all of this exposition-y stuff and if you're more intrigued! Oh, and I feel obligated to mention that the Team Rocket that is described in this story is heavily inspired by prettygirl17's _My Disadvantage_ and its sequel _The Instinct_. If you don't already know her, you should definitely check her out! She's one of the first people that I fell in love with on this site.

***** The Masked Man is a reference to the manga. Ironically, that story weaves perfectly into what I have planned for this one, so I will probably reference that here and there but not to worry; you don't need to have read the manga (I haven't) to enjoy this story. Also, I didn't want Giovanni to be the leader here; he wouldn't just go from being how he was to becoming murderous.


	3. Jump In With Both Feet

**Weather The Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** As in the last chapter, _italics _represent flashbacks. But that's only one scene.

* * *

**Jump In With Both Feet**

Poor Misty Ketchum. Widow at thirty-six.

Every time she stepped out the door, she was greeted with looks of pity and sad smiles of sympathy, as though these people knew the pain that she was going through. It was then that she became resolved not to go outside anymore.

Whenever she was outside she found herself with an angry scowl on her face. She would try to soften her expression a tad when people would throw their compassion at her like a spray of acid rain, but she had to grind her teeth together to get through it.

Misty Waterflower did not deal well with pity. Even less, Misty Ketchum. She did not accept pity. Misty was strong. Those sad smiles from strangers that she didn't know but thought that they knew her—she didn't need them. They only made her angrier at the world. She could handle the world on her own. She always had. She always had to.

But then when she stepped inside that house—their house—it was different. The hard armor she had on would fall to the ground rusted and useless, leaving her exposed. She would take the impossibly long, daunting walk to that room—their room—and collapse into tears as soon as she made it in. There, she was poor Misty Ketchum.

Widow at thirty-six.

* * *

It was so simple she was surprised that it hadn't occurred as more than a fleeting thought to her before. She had been researching Legendary Pokémon in the library—their immense strength was comforting in a time when it felt like all was lost. She had felt deep down that they would lead her to something, and here it was. Time travel. Celebi. If she could go back in time to when her parents took down Team Rocket, and do it right this time, then her father wouldn't be murdered eighteen years later. And she'd be saving the world from a group of horrible villains. Win-win.

Before she knew it, she was back in Cerulean, racing up the library steps, taking them two at a time. She went back to the desk she had dubbed her own and found the mountain of books there exactly as she left it, right down to the open book with the freshly crinkled page. She sat flipping through them for hours, heart pounding with anticipation the whole time. She hadn't even realized the time that had passed until she realized that she was starving and had to pee as though she'd just downed a gallon of water.

And she was still wearing yesterday's clothes.

Great.

She headed home, walked up the stairs to the front stoop, for once free of reporters, and opened the door only to be greeted by a smothering hug from Delia.

"Oh, sweetie, we had no idea where you went! We know that you can handle the world on your own, but we were so worried about you," he grandmother cried into her shoulder. She pulled away sharply. "Next time tell us before you leave!" she scolded.

Ilse muttered a brief apology and said something about going to check on her mother. She headed to her parents' room, feeling the stifling emptiness with every step down the hallway. As she approached the door, she heard a soft, muffled sobbing, growing with intensity as she made a fist and reached, knocking on the door.

"Mom?"

Abruptly the crying stopped and Ilse just barely heard a soft, "Ilse?" through the door.

Ilse hesitantly pushed open the door to see her mother sitting hunched over on the bed, various memorabilia scattered around her, sprinkled with many crumpled up tissues. Next to her was Pikachu. Its coat had faded from the glossy, healthy yellow it usually was to a dull sallow color and its ears were drooped. Ilse rushed over to the bed and embraced them both.

"I'm sorry I left, Mom," Ilse choked out.

Misty let out another sob against her shoulder. "It's alright, baby. I understand."

Pikachu, meanwhile, was wedged between the both of them and let out a strangled, "Pi-kaa," as it half-heartedly tried to wiggle out of the stronghold it was caught in.

The cry went unnoticed as Misty soothingly stroked Ilse's back, murmuring, "We'll be okay," and other reassuring falsehoods.

"Mom?" Ilse asked, finally pulling away from her mother's comforting presence. "I think that I need to go away for a little while. Just think things through. I hate to leave you alone, but…I really need to do this."

Misty sighed, looking up sadly at her daughter. "I understand," she said. "Hold on for a moment…I want to give you something."

Misty got up and started rummaging through her drawers. She reached way back in the back corner of one and pulled out a small silk cloth. It was a soft pearly pink handkerchief with a hand-embroidered sun on it. She held it close to her heart for a moment before she reached out and handed it to her daughter. "This is the first gift I ever gave your father. I know that you're trying to be strong now, but this is for when you need it."

Ilse took the handkerchief in her hand and hugged her mother again. She mumbled a quick, "I love you," into her shoulder and quickly left the room, not turning back.

* * *

Her father had had an insane number of knickknacks that he had accumulated throughout his years of travels. The basement was filled with trophies, old, outdated gadgets, costumes, stacks upon stacks of photo albums, and just about anything in between that you could imagine. Ilse had shuffled through nearly everything, growing more and more discouraged with every displaced box she pushed aside.

She was looking for something. Something she was almost certain that her father owned. The hazy memory of it was somewhere in the back of her mind; she was almost certain that she had seen it before. She hoped with every box she leafed through that she was in fact remembering this right and that she hadn't just fabricated this memory out of the hope that she had been carrying the past week, only to be squashed like a berry between her fingers.

She needed this.

Angry tears began streaming down her face as she continued to rifle through the artifacts of her father's life. Pictures of him and her mother when they were young. Pictures of him and all the various people he had met on his amazing journeys—stories that she now found herself clinging to like a lifeline. Her father when he was young and strong; invincible. Her mother always said that he should have died a long time ago with all the stupid things that he would jump into. They would laugh and nudge each other playfully, like they were enjoying an inside joke. It didn't see so funny now.

She had finally given up, collapsing on the floor of the dusty basement and angrily shoved the last box she had just picked apart. It slid into a small backpack, knocking it over and the contents spilling out. Rolling right her way was a small, gold and silver ball.

Bingo.

* * *

_The time shortly after the Rocket takedown was the scariest of Misty's life. At first, the crime organization had seemed to be subdued. People were incarcerated and The Masked Man was nowhere to be found. It was all that Ash's plan could have hoped for. Then, not a month later, the pilfered carcass of Team Rocket spasmed out of control. A few remaining members plotting revenge in the name of the leader that had been taken from them were after Ash and Misty's heads._

_They and the rest of the group had to lie low for weeks, constantly moving, and avoiding towns and cities while waiting for the vengeful Rockets to be captured by law enforcement. The only bright side to the whole ordeal was that during the Rocket takedown and the flirtation with death, Ash and Misty realized that they needed to get back together._

_And it was then that Misty realized that she was pregnant. _

_Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were making their way through an obscure forest deep in the Sinnoh region. Misty was feeling particularly haggard, feeling exhausted and achy all over, and therefore was having trouble keeping up with the guys. She chalked it up to being out of shape; after all, she hadn't been on a journey in a really long time. Swimming everyday at the gym did give her muscle and endurance, but this was a completely different kind of living._

_It was still strange, though, because Ash was the injured one. The Masked Man had managed to mark a large gash on Ash's leg, leaving him with a great amount of blood loss. He was managing now, but Misty could tell that he was still limping. She was honestly worried that the stitches would come out._

_That was why she kept pushing forward—because if anyone should be complaining, it should be Ash. But he wasn't, so neither would she._

_A few hours passed, and she only felt worse, beginning to feel a little faint, not to mention incredibly winded. Abruptly, she stopped in her tracks, alarming the boys, and she turned into the bushes and retched._

_In her woozy, clouded mind, it suddenly occurred to her that maybe this wasn't just being out of shape. After taking a moment to rinse the bile out of her mouth, she asked the guys if they could risk taking a moment in the nearest town for her to pick up some medicine to ease what she was sure was just a 24 hour bug. _

_They made to the edge of the forest shortly after, despite Misty's slow speed. Misty darted out, trying to make it in and out of town as quickly as possible while Ash, Brock, and Pikachu stayed hidden in the trees. Rather than looking for medicine to treat the headache she told the guys about, she headed straight to the back of the drugstore. Pregnancy tests._

_The next couple minutes in that drugstore bathroom were cause for considerably more anxiety than she had felt in any of the life or death situations she'd faced in the past month. With her friends and her Pokémon beside her she could stay levelheaded, focused on the battle at hand. Now, though, her hands were shaking, palms sweating, and calling on any of her Pokémon would do her no good whatsoever. When she finally reached a trembling hand out to the test, she held it up to read only to drop it right to the ground._

_Two lines._

* * *

Ilse ran.

She clutched the ball in her hand and ran out of the house, bursting through the door, running so fast that she barely managed to slam it shut behind her. She jumped down all the stairs, landing solidly on her feet in a crouch, using her free hand to push up and racing down the street.

After nearly a half mile of sprinting, the adrenaline in her system calmed down, and the exertion started catching up with her. She huffed and her pace began lagging. Finally she stopped and wiped her brow, pulling a 'Ball off her 'Belt, releasing it, and exhaustedly climbing atop her Pidgeot.

"Azalea Town," she requested, pointing southwest.

The large bird flapped its wings and shot up into the air, flying effortlessly in the direction Ilse had pointed. It crossed her mind that she'd been calling randomly on Pidgeot a lot to fly her places. She had to remember to give it a Poffin later.

Swiftly, all thoughts flew from her mind as she leaned against the bird's soft down feathers and let the cool wind wash over her like a shower of relief.

They would be okay.

* * *

Soon enough, a windblown Ilse landed in Azalea Town. She recalled Pidgeot and quickly healed it in the Pokémon Center before taking off again. At this point, she was completely worn out. It had been an extraordinarily long day, not to mention the fact that she hadn't gotten a lick of sleep in the past week.

Wearily, she walked along a beaten path straight out of town and into a dark forest. She'd adventured in Johto before, and had undoubtedly been in this forest before, perhaps even in this very spot, but she had no idea where she was going. She could only trust that she would get where she was going if she kept walking. And so she did.

After a while, her mind grew hazy with fatigue. She had no idea where she was, and not even enough energy to become concerned with it. For all she knew, she could be going in circles, and be right back at the entrance to Azalea Town, or she could have made it straight to the other end of the dark woods. It was probably close to midnight by now, and there were no signs of anything other than trees in every direction as far as the eye could see—which wasn't very far. The only thing she was thankful for was that she hadn't run into any bugs.

She hated bugs.

She kept fumbling along. Maybe an hour had passed, maybe two, maybe three. It was impossible to tell; there was no light due to the densely packed trees. The Ilex forest was known for having next to no light in the daytime, so it was pitch black at night. Trainers were encouraged to never set foot into it after sundown.

Just then, she all but ran into a small wooden shrine. She suddenly found herself very much awake, and took a step back from the rickety structure, almost afraid to touch it, to even breathe near it. It looked like it was a thousand years old.

"Well, it took you long enough."

Ilse started, taking a sharp intake of breath as she jerked her head to the side so fast it could have caused whiplash. Standing right beside her, hidden by the shadows of the foliage, was Noah.

She stood holding her chest, as she tried to slow down her beating heart with slow, steady breaths. "Why on earth are you here?" she demanded.

Noah chuckled lightly, stepping out from the coverage of the trees. "You're more predictable than you think," he responded easily.

Ilse furrowed her brows in confusion, still not understanding how he could be here. "Were you following me, or something?"

"Like I would follow you." He waved her off. "You ran out on me with _that face_ of yours and I knew something was up. I saw a scheme in your eyes. So, I went to the library and that damn desk that you've been hiding out at all week and looked through the book that you so hastily left open."

Ilse gaped at him. It was clever, she had to admit. It was starting to feel as though he was physically in her head, crawling around in her brain trying to scrape up little breadcrumbs that she'd left lying around. She knew exactly the page that he was talking about. The one that had a shadowy, but relatively clear picture of this very shrine. It spoke of the legend of Celebi's time traveling ability, though it had never been officially recorded that such a thing was possible or that such a Pokémon had ever existed, much less living to this day. Luckily, Ilse had had a little bit of inside information to fill those holes.

She stood up a little straighter and put her game face back on. "So why are you here, Noah?"

"To keep you from doing anything stupid." He approached her, arching his eyebrow as though he was daring her to challenge him. "Because you're insane."

That made her blood boil. "If you think for a second that you can keep me from doing this, you are the crazy one," she spat.

Noah put his hands up in surrender. "Hold on," he started. "I didn't say anything about stopping you. I meant that I'm going with you."

That had her dumbfounded. She hadn't seen that one coming. "No. You don't even know what I'm planning," she started uncertainly.

"I figured that you would just fill me in along the way." He shrugged. "Now let's see you work your magic."

Ilse was still looking at him as though he had two heads. This was not a part of the plan. She had to do this on her own without having to think about him. But despite herself, she reached into her bag and groped around for the 'Ball she had stored in there. She pulled it out, the precious metal glinting against the little moonlight that shown through the heavy foliage.

Noah threw her a confused look as she handled the ball uncertainly. She ignored it as she slowly reached to place it in the middle of the shrine. A sparkling white-green light erupted towards the sky from where the ball was placed, blinding both Ilse and Noah. They shielded their eyes whilst trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on in front of them. The light kept expanding around them before suddenly shooting up in a sharp beam straight in the air, through the trees. Quick as it appeared the beam of light seemed to fade right into the ball. All that remained were countless white-green sparkles raining down from the sky directly onto the shrine.

A shadow appeared on top of the structure, causing Ilse and Noah to look up. Right where the light had shot up from the shrine was a tiny figure, floating down like a feather from the small break in the trees. Wide-eyed, Ilse watched in disbelief, glued to the drifting silhouette in the air. A small green fairy landed on its side on the top of the shine, propping its head up with its small arm.

"Celebi," Ilse whispered incredulously.

"And a sassy one at that," Noah added, noting the pose.

Hesitantly, Ilse approached the small creature, who was looking directly at her with its large blue eyes. "Celebi, could I—"

Before either of them knew what was happening, the light came back full-force, this time as a circle rather than a beam, and embraced the whole shrine. Ilse roughly made one last ditch attempt and pushed Noah out of the way as she felt the light expanding on to her. Once she was fully sheathed in light, she closed her eyes shut and felt herself being whisked away.

* * *

**A/N: **Something that I forgot to mention in the last chapter's author's note is that while The Masked Man is a character that I'm referencing from the manga, he is not going to be characterized as that character was-he will be OOC. I hope you don't mind.

So anyway, how was that? The last chapter really was a filler but now we're finally getting into the meat of this story. I hope you liked it and are getting on board with this idea! In the next chapter we're going to finally get more interaction with your favorite characters! Get pumped! PS, I have the first 16 chapters completely written now, but I'm thinking of adding little extra flashback scenes that explain Noah and Ilse's relationship/friendship. Or I might just leave the story without and leave it to your imagination. Or I'll just add a chapter at the end like I did with _Time for Drabbles. _Let me know what you think! Oh, and are you liking the chapter titles? They're all water idioms-I thought it would be fun.


	4. Fish Out of Water

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Let's pretend in this world that the drinking age is 18. And depending on the main perspective in the scene, Ilse will be referred to as Ilse or Alyssa in the 3rd person. You'll understand that after you start reading. Oh, and I have totally been forgetting to thank my BETA readers! Chapters 1-3 were done by Misty Ketchum97 and those as well as all subsequent chapters have been done by the fabulous C'sMelody! Love, love, love ya!

* * *

**Fish Out of Water**

Ilse woke with her cheek planted in the dirt and a bruising pain in her side with a distinct throbbing feeling that only could have meant that she'd been fallen more than a few feet. She closed her eyes, grimacing as she pushed herself up off the ground. She ached all over. Apparently time travel really took it out of you. She attempted to brush the hair out of her eyes, only to streak mud all across her face.

"Great," she muttered under her breath.

A few feet away from her was the GS Ball, which she quickly snatched up. She achingly pushed herself to her feet before looking from side to side for Noah's dark blue hair. Not seeing him, she began frantically looking around for his body sprawled on the ground or any sign of him. Finding none, she breathed a sigh of relief. Hopefully, that meant that she had managed to push him out of the range of the light.

Slowly she began picking her way out of the forest, not having the faintest clue where…or when she was. This definitely didn't seem like the Ilex forest anymore; there was too much light. She searched for a path out of the woods, eventually finding a small, beaten trail. She followed it, hoping that it would lead her to a town, hopefully with a newspaper, and, with any luck, a payphone.

* * *

"Misty, I don't understand why you made me come all the way to Cerulean for this," Ash whined, sulking as Misty made a vain attempt to brush his hair out of his eyes.

"Oh Ash, stop complaining. You know that it only took you _maybe_ an hour to fly here," she replied, whipping off his hat and tossing it behind her.

Ash let out a whimper of protest at seeing his beloved hat strewn on the ground and he finally swatted Misty's hand away from his face. "Fine," he said, reaching and snatching his hat back up, "I'll cooperate. I'll meet this girl, be your buffer for a few days, and then I'll be on my merry way back to Indigo, alright?"

Misty grinned widely at her victory. "Thanks Ash. My sisters just thrust this girl upon me a couple hours ago and I really don't know what to expect, knowing my family. " She rolled her eyes, continuing, "And she talked to my sisters first, so she already has a bad impression of us, I'm sure, so I just want a someone here when she comes, and since Brock, May, and Drew couldn't get here until later…" she trailed off, looking up at Ash with puppy dog eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Ash said, brushing her off. "I thought you didn't have any other family?"

Misty shrugged her shoulders, leafing through her closet. "She didn't think so either. She doesn't even have any brothers or sisters, fortunately for—" She glanced back at Ash who was arching his eyebrow at her, and quickly corrected herself, "I mean _un_fortunately for her. Apparently she's some long-lost cousin, and she just wanted to stop by and meet me. Maybe stay for a while."

"Oh, lucky her," Ash quipped sarcastically. Misty placed her hand on his chest, harshly shoving him backwards onto her bed, unsettling Pikachu, who had been trying to take a nap there. Ash made himself comfortable, putting his hands behind his head and folding his legs. "So, this is your bed, huh?" he said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively.

"Ugh! Alright, get out. You can wait for her downstairs now," Misty said, making a face of disgust as she moved over to the side of her bed to roll him out. Not a moment after he hit the floor, she grabbed his shoulders and all but pushed him out of her room, slamming the door in his face. She sighed, leaning against the door for a moment before returning to her closet. She did not want to be labeled as 'the runt' the moment this cousin of hers stepped through the door.

Just as she finished brushing her hair out and smoothing the skirt of her dress, the doorbell rang. She ran down the stairs, anxious to not have the only family she had, other than her sisters, be greeted only by her hat-wearing moron of a best friend slash ex-boyfriend. As she skidded to a stop at the bottom of the stairs, she saw the door wide open and a girl standing behind it, practically gaping at Ash.

And she was gorgeous. She had the same eyes as Misty but her hair was long and black, cascading down her back in voluminous waves. Instead of Misty's pale skin that was so light it was blinding, her skin was a golden tan. And of course she had the same tall and thin yet curvaceous figure of her sisters. Another sensational Waterflower to feel insignificant to.

Ash too was staring at the girl. She looked oddly familiar, like he had met her before. He chalked it up to her having all of Misty's features, right down to the enormous green eyes. Yup, definitely a Waterflower.

As Misty stepped out and into the girl's vision she began staring between Ash and Misty like she'd seen a ghost. Abruptly, the girl shook herself out of it and extended her hand to Misty, smiling and saying, "Hello, I'm Alyssa. Alyssa Waterflower."

Misty smiled back, shaking her hand in return. "Hi, Alyssa. I'm Misty, and this is my friend Ash Ketchum."

At that, Alyssa visibly started, face falling as she continued looking between the two of them. Misty threw her a slightly confused look.

Ash stood awkwardly between them, just looking at their strange expressions. "Uh, why don't we show you to the kitchen," he offered.

Misty sighed in relief, happy for the suggestion. "Good idea, Ash," said before turning to her guest. "You must be hungry. Lord knows this one always is," she added before thwacking Ash on the back of the head. With that, the trio headed to the kitchen.

* * *

It had been surprisingly easy to end up in Cerulean under the pretenses of being Misty's cousin. Once she stumbled out of the woods she had landed in, she realized that it was the Viridian Forest. She had made her way to a Pokémon Center and immediately made a beeline for the video phones. Well, after cleaning up a bit.

If she remembered right, her aunts were incredibly gullible, to put it kindly, when they were young. Not much had changed since. She had called, made up her story and then made her way to Cerulean, hoping to Mew she would figure out what to do once she got there.

When she first saw her parents she couldn't help but stare. They looked almost the same, yet so different. Her mother had short hair tossed up in a ponytail, rather than the longer hair she had now that was usually loose down her back. Because her dad liked it that way. He had a boyish handsomeness now, rather than the rugged maturity she saw in her father when he was alive. But they still looked like her parents.

Ilse looked around in awe. So this is what the Gym used to look like. It was so different, yet so familiar at the same time. She guessed that maybe this is kind of what it looked like when she was young—she recognized some of it from pictures. Since then the Gym had been remodeled a couple of times. Right now the Gym seemed to be mostly filled with cool-toned neutrals, which she presumed was what was modern. It had a calming effect and she had to admit that she quite liked it.

Once she finished taking in her surroundings, she went back to staring at the backs of Ash and Misty. _Friends? _She realized that she knew how her parents met—she had heard that story more times than she could count—but they had never told her how they got together…

"This is the kitchen, or Ash's homeland as you'll probably come to know it," Misty said while smirking at Ash, taking Ilse out of her reverie. The kitchen was relatively dark. All the wood was a almost ebony brown and all the appliances were brushed stainless steel. It looked high-tech but it also showed that it was rarely used. Her mother never had been much of a chef. "I'll show you the rest of the house later, but from the sound of your stomach," Misty said pointedly as Ilse's abdomen let out a loud growl, "I'd say that you're in the mood for a snack."

Ilse nodded enthusiastically. She'd probably lost ten pounds in the last week from all of the eating she hadn't done, not to mention the stress that had been constantly plaguing her. Now that her father was alive and safe and her mother was no longer heartbroken, she was absolutely ravenous.

Misty grabbed something out of the fridge and quickly popped it in the microwave. Moments later she took it out and placed it in front of Ilse and Ash, sweat-dropping as she watched both inhale their food. "So, where are you from, Alyssa?" Misty asked, attempting conversation.

It took a moment for Ilse to recognize that she was being spoken to. She gulped down the food she had just shoved in her mouth and wracked her brain. Maybe she should have taken a moment longer to work out her back story. "Uh, actually, I'm from Hoenn." Yeah, that sounded good. It's far away.

"Really?" Ash asked, perking up. "We have a couple friends from Hoenn. They should be in town later today, too."

"And Ash traveled there for a year," Misty added.

"Oh." Ilse smiled, trying not to make any sign that she already knew both those things. "That's nice."

The conversation flowed pretty easily from there. Ilse was a fairly decent liar and didn't have too many problems answering their questions. Luckily, they were steering clear of any questions about her family for the time being.

Ilse couldn't be happier. Both her parents were right in front of her, so close she could touch them. She wanted so much to hug her dad. It took every ounce of restraint she had to stay seated and not reach out to him and say how much she had missed him.

Just then, the doorbell rang and both Misty and Ash got up to get it. Ilse stayed seated at the counter, shoveling the last of her food down her gullet before getting up and trailing after her parents to see who it was at the door. She saw just over the top of her parents' head the tips of some spiky, gravity-defying brown hair.

He waltzed right into the front foyer before pausing a moment and looking right at her, eyebrows raised. "I see she's already here."

Her mouth opened with a puff of air as she began to call out for her Uncle Brock, but she caught herself just in time and instead said, "Who's this?"

Misty introduced the two of them and Ilse couldn't help but smile. Uncle Brock had always had an almost calming effect to her family. However she felt an uncomfortable prickle on the back of her neck when she saw how much he was smiling back at her.

"Hey, how about we get on over to the bar? What better way to get to know each other better?" he suggested, giving Ilse a wink that made her shiver imperceptibly.

"Sure, why not?" Misty chortled. "Pikachu can babysit the Gym, can't he?

* * *

Apparently not only did Cerulean have a bar, but a pretty packed one at that. Everywhere were people dancing and flirting and generally having a good time. The four of them walked in with the firm intent of putting them all to shame.

Ilse headed straight for the drinks. It had been a crazy day to add on to a week where she hadn't had nearly enough alcohol. She was going to take full advantage of this situation under the pretense that she was just trying to be social with her new friends. Ilse walked up to the counter and hopped up onto a barstool, making herself comfortable. She tapped the counter, trying to get the bartender's attention. When he turned to her, she winked and smiled flirtatiously, while oh-so-subtly pressing her breasts together. "Something fruity," she ordered, sitting down as she waited for the rest of her party to join her. While Ilse had her mother's wit and her father's passion, she also had her aunts' skills of male-manipulation.

"Rough day?" the bartender asked, respectably only glancing at her chest for a moment.

Ilse scoffed. "More like rough week."

"Here," he said, handing her the drink. "It's on the house."

Bingo. "Thanks," she purred.

Ash walked up and took the stool next to her. Ilse looked at him in confusion. "Where did Mo—Misty and Brock go?" she asked, hoping that he didn't catch her brief slip.

"Brock went chasing after some girl with a belly ring and Misty is undoubtedly pulling him by the ear in the opposite direction," he answered while gesturing for a beer. "Brock is kind of known for being a gigantic Casanova. You get used to it."

Ilse laughed freely. She was feeling high on relief. She came back up for air only to find her father giving her a strange look that was so much like the one that he always gave her when he was proud of her. "What?"

"You just look so much like Misty."

"What's going on here?" Brock said cheekily, his ear only looking a tinge red as he reached over and finished off Ash's beer.

A flash of anger flickered over Misty's eyes. Neither Ash, nor Ilse noticed because Ash was too busy trying to snatch his drink away from Brock and Ilse was looking longingly at Ash. Misty faked a happy smile and said, "Yeah, looks like you guys are getting along great. Hey, Ash, let's go dance!"

"Always bossing me around," Ash joked as he let himself be pulled off his stool and disappeared into the crowd behind Misty.

Brock took Ash's seat and signaled the bartender for another beer. "So, you seem to be growing fond of Ash."

Ilse couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, he seems like a great guy," she said wistfully.

Brock arched an eyebrow at her. This was beginning to look familiar. "Well, don't get any ideas. I swear, Ash and Misty have so much sexual tension that you could crack their skulls if you hit them over the head with it, and believe me, they have incredibly hard heads."

Uh-oh. Ilse began shaking her head vigorously at Brock's ramblings. "Oh, no, that's not at all what I—wait." Ilse cut herself off. Something Brock said had piqued her interest. "Sexual tension? Have they been together before?"

"Of course," Brock said, shrugging his shoulders. "They were together for nearly a year when they were younger, but then they just broke it off all of a sudden a little after Ash became Champion. I guess they weren't ready for that stressful of a relationship."

"Oh," Ilse said thoughtfully. Damn. It was starting to look like she might have to keep two goals in mind on this little mission.

Apparently, Brock mistook her contemplative tone for one of disappointment and he reached out to put his hand on her shoulder in what he thought was comfort. "Don't worry, I see this all the time. You're not alone. Girls fall all over him all the time. I mean, he's the Champion after all; that gets chicks like nothing else. I'm just saying that Misty can have a bit of a temper, and you don't want to be on the other end of that," he said, pointing to his still red ear. "I, on the other hand," he continued, smiling suggestively, "am very much available."

Oh, shit, no. This was not happening. Her Uncle Brock was not hitting on her. Ugh, maybe coming to the bar wasn't such a good idea.

"I couldn't help but notice that you have every bit of beauty that the Sensational Sisters are known for around the world and in my hear—"

"Hold it right there, Brock," Misty interjected, grabbing his other ear and yanking on it. Brock cried out and jerked up out of the barstool. "No hitting on my cousin. The last thing she needs is being smarmed on by you, I'm sure," Misty said playfully. "At least not while I'm around."

Ilse let out a very relieved sigh. Thank Mew she got there, otherwise Ilse may have screamed. And thank Mew she had only heard that part of the conversation.

Ash smiled at the spectacle in front of him. "Anyway, look who we found!"

Beside Ash and Misty was a drunken brunette who was sloppily trying to keep her balance by holding onto an attractive green-haired boy.

"Drunk May!" Brock cried out, obviously joyous at this little discovery.

"Woo!" May cheered, thrusting her drink in the air.

"Oh, Alyssa," Misty exclaimed, "this is Drew." Misty gestured to Drew, who waved casually.

"And this is inebriated May." May let out another whoop. "We found them making out in the corner," Misty explained, arching her brow at the couple.

"These are the friends from Hoenn that we told you about," Ash added.

Drew nodded. "We're only in town to compete in a contest. We decided to blow off some steam here." He proved his point by turning May's face toward his and resuming making out.

The others continued talking and Ilse sat silently, staring only slightly awkwardly at Drew and May. Her whole extended family was here, just eighteen years younger and drinking with her like they were her friends. Her Aunt May looked even more beautiful, with long brown hair rather than the short, professional bob she kept as an adult and she had to admit that her Uncle Drew was actually quite cute as a teenager. Nowhere near as handsome as her dad, but who could be?

"Drew, I thought that you had more class than to take advantage of a drunk chick. You're not Gary," Ash joked.

Drew held a finger up. "Rule number one: it's never taking advantage if she says yes." Drew winked. "Got it Ash?"

Brock leaned over to Ilse. "These two just got together a few months ago after years of liking each other, so they're still in the peak of their 'new couple stage'," Brock explained as the couple continued kissing.

Ilse nodded. Seeing Drew and May happy and in love just made her miss Sophie. And wish that her own parents were in the same place.

Misty grimaced at the couple's tongue action. "Ugh, maybe we should have left them in the corner, Ash."

* * *

Eventually, they made it back home, dropping May and Drew off at the hotel they had gotten a room in, and decided to give Alyssa a tour of the Gym. Ash had taken it upon himself to say that she could stay at the Gym as long as she needed to and Misty reluctantly agreed. So naturally, they had to show her around. The Gym was relatively large, so it would be easy to get places confused if you didn't know the space.

Alyssa hung close to Ash. It was as though she didn't want to let him out of her sight. It put a burning ball in the bottom of Misty's stomach that she didn't like, and it tightened every time she would see Alyssa laugh at something Ash said, or touch his arm, or asked him a question. Misty was used to girls throwing themselves at Ash, but he never paid them any mind. But whenever Alyssa did anything, Ash would smile almost _lovingly_ at her and it was like a punch in Misty's gut.

Once they were done showing Alyssa the Gym, she said that she would go wash up and get ready for bed. Misty offered a pair of her pajamas for her to wear when she admitted that she didn't have any bags with her. The two went upstairs and started going through Misty's clothes.

"Thanks for letting me borrow your clothes," Alyssa said.

"It's no problem," Misty replied curtly. She looked over to Alyssa and smirked slightly. This was a perfect opportunity to put this girl in her place. "You know, Alyssa, there's something I think you should know about Ash."

Alyssa's eyes widened and she tilted her head in confusion. "What?"

Misty sighed and turned back to her closet. "Oh, it's just that he's the kind of guy that loves his Pokémon more than he could ever love a girl," she said offhandedly. "I kind of feel bad for you, actually. He's an easy guy to fall in love with, but then he'll just pay you no mind."

Misty faltered when she looked back to Alyssa, expecting to see her almost in tears, but found her smiling instead, and looking right at her.

"You like him," Alyssa said, grinning ecstatically.

"Wha—I never—"

"You think he's cute," Alyssa continued.

Misty continued to stutter random syllables, and her face turned more and more flushed with each try. It didn't help that she happened to notice that when this girl smiled, it took over her whole face and almost looked like…no.

"You _love_ him."

"Stop it!" Misty fumed, tearing herself away from studying the girl's face. "He's my ex, I don't even _like_ him, and I was just trying to do you a favor."

Alyssa paid her no mind. "Oh, don't worry about me, Mist," she said, dropping the nickname only Ash used. "He's all yours."

Misty harrumphed and turned back to her clothes, leafing through them in silence.

"Your room is very…blue," Alyssa observed, trying to change the subject. The walls and carpet were blue and there were little detailed paintings of various Water Pokémon bordering the room. "Water Pokémon are my favorite too."

At that, Misty jerked around to look at Alyssa, eyes sparkling. "Really?" she asked eagerly, their previous conversation forgotten.

And just like that they started chattering on and on about Water Types as Alyssa chose a pair of pink pajamas covered in little Horsea. Misty smiled. Maybe she could like this girl, even if she did seem to have a little crush on Ash.

Misty headed back downstairs to join the guys after leaving Alyssa to take a shower.

"So, what do you think of her?" Misty asked.

"She looks just like you," Ash observed as he mentally compared their faces.

Misty furrowed her eyebrows at him, dismissing the idea with a wave of her hand.

"No, he's right," Brock agreed. "It's just the hair. If you were both bald, you would be interchangeable.

Frowning at the thought, Misty acquiesced, "Alright, I see a little family resemblance, which I guess is impressive considering how little I look like the _Sensational Sisters_," she spat in a mocking tone.

Brock and Ash exchanged a look. Misty had actually grown to resemble her sisters more and more. Of course, the hair wasn't particularly long and wavy, but her face had matured and her body…

"Sure, Misty," the boys said.

They had continued talking a little while longer and were just about to call it a night when the doorbell rang. Sharing a look of confusion with Ash and Brock, Misty went to go answer the door. She pulled it open expecting to find May and Drew back for round two, but instead found an exhausted looking boy standing across from her with shocking navy blue hair. He was looking at her with wide brown eyes, like it was strange to see her. "Uh, may I help you?"

"I hope so," he started. "I'm looking for—"

"Noah‽"

Alyssa had been making her way downstairs to see who was at the door and saw an all-too-familiar face in the doorway. She crossed her arms trying to look nonchalant and hide the look of utter disbelief on her face. "What are you doing here?"

"You know this kid?" Misty asked.

By that point, Ash had walked up beside her. "Obviously she does."

Misty saw that this 'Noah' was no longer paying any attention to her or Ash. He was staring at Alyssa and giving her a look that she knew very well—it was the kind of look that would put butterflies in your stomach and send shivers down your spine. Smiling gleefully, Misty gave a quick tug to a handful of Ash's hair. "Why don't you come in, Noah?" she offered genially.

So little Miss Alyssa had a boyfriend. This should be fun.

* * *

**A/N:** Woo! We've finally made it back in time. What do you think? Like the story? Hate it? Wish you could change something about it? Are things starting to make more sense? Tell me everything in reviews!

Oh, and do you understand why sometimes she's Ilse and sometimes she's Alyssa? I tried to make that painfully clear, but if not, here's the low-down. Both names are referring to Ilse but I'm am telling this story from a 3rd person limited viewpoint, with the person who's view the story is being told from changing at nearly every scene break. So a person who knows her as Alyssa wouldn't call her Ilse, yeah? Just ask me if you're still confused!


	5. Break the Ice

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Special thanks to my unbelievably amazing Beta C'sMelody! And I have yet to thank all of the fabulous people who have been reviewing, following, and favoriting this story, so thank you to you too!

* * *

**Break the Ice**

_She had noticed it a long time ago. The way Noah looked at her._

_Ilse had set out on her Pokémon Journey the day that ten-year-olds in Pallet were eligible to do so, not oversleeping like her father had years before, but knocking on Professor Gary Oak's door at the crack of dawn. Her mother had insisted that it was too early to bother him, but Ash had only encouraged it. He had never been able to deny his baby girl anything._

_Trainer eligibility day was different for every city and Pallet's was first in Kanto. Ilse lived in Cerulean, but Cerulean had a later date. Usually it was against the rules for one to go to another town to get their License, but fortunately Ilse had connections. _

_Gary had handed her her Pokédex and six PokéBalls and then, yawning, asked her which starter Pokémon she wanted._

_She shocked all of them by saying none._

_Growing up in a Gym, Ilse had a number of Pokémon that were given to her as eggs and even though they technically belonged to the Gym she called them her own. So the one Pokémon Ilse decided to take on her journey as her 'starter' was a Psyduck._

_This time neither Ash nor Misty were in big support of the idea. Starter Pokémon—except for Pikachu—are known for being notoriously easy to work with and Trained to enhance just that aspect before given to the novice Trainer. Psyduck weren't exactly known for that. But every time another Pokémon was suggested Ilse just shook her head and clung tighter to the PokéBall that held her beloved Psyduck. Eventually they just had to let her go, instructing her to stay away from Spearow._

_That was their only word of advice for her because they knew that she would be successful on her own. She was the daughter of Ash and Misty Ketchum—there was no way she could fail._

_So, baring that in mind, Ilse managed to immediately capture a Pidgey and ran every time she heard the squawk of a Spearow._

_She traveled alone for weeks catching Pokémon and Training. She had a lot of traveling to do before she could do as much as challenge a Gym because she couldn't really challenge either the Pewter City Gym or the Cerulean City Gym, two of the closest cities. So she contented herself in just making a strong team. The Gyms would still be there when she felt she could adequately crush all of them._

_Being alone was freeing and she felt powerful. She knew that she had an advantage over any Trainer that came her way. She was Ilse Ketchum, after all. She was taught everything she knew by one of the strongest Gym Leaders of all time and a long reigning Pokémon Champion. She felt like she didn't need anyone else._

_But she was also starting to feel a little lonely._

_All her life had been surrounded with people and Pokémon. Her parents were always there, and people always stopped by the Gym to visit, her Aunties Daisy, Lily, and Violet, Uncle Brock, Aunt May and Uncle Drew with Sophie, and various other people that her parents had known since they were young. The Gym was so full of life and love that she never even knew what loneliness felt like. Now she was learning and she didn't like it._

_But she still had her Pokémon, so she usually managed to forget about it._

_She was on her way to Vermillion City. Her parents had taken her to Vermillion many times because it was one of her mother's favorite cities. She wanted to see the beach and maybe even challenge the Gym Leader._

_Then came the storm. One minute the sky was blue and the next a flash of lightning shot through the air, clouds immediately forming around it._

_Now most people in the presence of thunderstorm would immediately run for shelter, but not Ilse. She'd always had an absolute fascination with them and the feeling of water pelting her skin as the wind blew her in every direction was almost magical. When your mother is a Water Pokémon Gym Leader and your Pokémon Master father's signature Pokémon is an Electric Type there's no place that feels more like home than the middle of a thunderstorm._

_So despite the danger that she knew that she faced in a storm, Ilse ran straight into it, enjoying every puddle under her feet and every crash of lightning that scared the living daylights out of her Pidgey._

_Then there, in the middle of the storm, at the point where all those dark clouds were swirling, Ilse found a boy._

_A boy with navy blue hair, darkened by the rain._

_It was just him and a Squirtle, practicing in the rain. She presumed he was doing so not only to enhance the Water Type's Attacks, but also to test its endurance. It was a good strategy. She hardly ever saw other kids her age out and about just training and this boy couldn't have been more than a year older than her, if that. _

_Before she knew what she was doing, she found herself shouting over to him. "Hey, do you wanna Battle?"_

_The boy turned to her abruptly, looking startled. He obviously hadn't expected anyone to be around—they were in a large field in the middle of a thunderstorm after all. That only lasted for a moment, though. After the immediate surprise of seeing her there, he sized her up. He looked her all up and down from her Battle-ready stance, to the already enlarged 'Ball in her hand to her superior, 'I can beat you' face. She felt herself begin to shiver._

_It must have been the rain._

_"Sure."_

_He did nothing but give a slight wave of his hand and his Squirtle hopped forward. _

_She chose her Psyduck._

_The match was close. At least, that's what she told herself. But at the end she was left with her knees sinking into the muddy ground and her knocked out Psyduck in her lap._

_She looked at him in disbelief. "How did you beat me?" she asked, the words tasting sour and heavy on her tongue. It couldn't be true. She never lost._

_He looked at her, a slight twinkle of superiority in his eyes and a slight smirk on his face. The shiver ran down her spine again._

_Definitely the rain._

_But then he turned away._

_And she found herself wanting nothing more than to follow him._

There were only three spare rooms in the Gym. That meant that there were seven bedrooms in total. And while for most houses that would be a lot, for the Cerulean City Gym it usually wasn't even close to enough. Ash and Brock took their usual rooms and Ilse was left with the third.

She had been oddly excited when she was assigned this room, but quickly stifled it when Misty threw her a questioning look. It was a simple room with a plush cream-colored carpet and sea-green walls. There was a queen-sized bed on the far wall, a large dresser, and luscious golden drapes on the one window. Aside from that, the room was clean and barren. It was nice, but nothing special.

But it was also Ilse's childhood room.

And now she had to share it with Noah.

Ilse paced around her room, trying to figure out where to go from there. Now she had Noah to worry about, which complicated things times a hundred. She'd really hoped that she'd pushed him out of the light and left him in that damn forest. But no, he was sitting on her bed watching her every move as she crossed the room. Even though she wasn't looking at him, she could feel those oh-so-familiar shivers running down her spine.

"Why do I get the feeling that you're not happy to see me?"

Ilse turned sharply to glare at him. "Oh, I don't know. Maybe because I asked you to stay out of my business?"

"You never ask—"

"It was implied!" she shouted over him.

He silenced and went back to watching her walk the length of the room, now with her hands rubbing her temples. After a couple minutes, he decided to try again. "Look, I'm here now, and like it or not, I can tell that you're way in over your head. You need my help, and I'm right here offering it."

"I don't need your help," she snapped back at him.

Turning to dig through his bag, Noah decided to try a different approach. "I bet that you didn't even pick up these," he said as he lifted two chunky pieces of technology.

"What are those?" Ilse asked, wrinkling her nose.

"Primitive Pokédex and Pokétch."

Ilse tilted her head, trying to find the likeness between these gadgets and the sleek, modern devices she had owned all her life.

As Noah placed the foreign objects in front of her, he added a card on top.

Ilse's jaw dropped. "A forged Trainer license?" she gasped. "Where on earth did you get that so quickly?"

Again, Noah rolled his eyes. "It's a big city, even now," he said as all means of explanation. No one will believe that you're a Trainer without all these things. Not even your parents."

Ilse sighed, finally giving in, and reaching for her newly acquired supplies. She had to admit it, he certainly had thought ahead. Maybe he could be useful after all. She sat on the bed next to him, looking him in the eye as she told him all the background that Uncle Brock had told her the day before.

"Wow," was all he had to say. "Your parents were badass."

"Yeah, I know," Ilse replied, smiling softly. "I just wish that they had told me some of this stuff. I have no idea why they wouldn't," she shrugged. "I guess that even though they were pretty good at talking with me, I get the feeling that they're not great communicators. They're afraid to tell each other what they feel…" she trailed off. She shook her head to snap herself back to the matter at hand. "Anyway, so our first order of business is to get my parents together."

"Well," Noah started, "as long as they're living under the same roof, that shouldn't be too hard."

"Yeah," Ilse said thoughtfully. She pondered that, staring off into space for a few moments.

"Ilse?"

Noah was giving her an intense look that made her heart flutter in her chest. "Hmm?" she squeaked.

"Can you do me a favor?" Ilse threw him a confused look, but he kept barreling on. "You're just like your parents. Strong. Independent. You think that you don't need anyone else in the world. And, believe me, you don't. You would be fine on your own. But please, when you meet the guy you love, tell him. Don't just let yourself live beside him, afraid to tell him how you feel for whatever reason. Trust me—he'll want to know."

Ilse felt herself being drawn into his eyes that never had stayed trained on hers the whole time. She opened her mouth as if to say something, before something clicked in her head. Communication…She clapped her hands together giddily. "I've got it!"

The next morning, Ilse woke up with a smile on her face, feeling warm and content. Her parents were here with her and _alive_. All was right in the world. Until she opened her eyes to find an arm draped over her stomach that was not her own. Her eyes widened and she let out a squeal of alarm. If the high pitched sound wasn't enough to rouse the sleeping body next to her, the sharp smack to his head certainly was.

"Ow!" he cried out. "The hell was that for?"

"When I was asleep, you were on the floor," Ilse gritted out between her teeth.

Still rubbing his sore head, Noah said, "The floor was uncomfortable and it's a big bed. It's not my fault that you scooted against me. Besides, it's not like it's the first time—"

He was met by another slap, this time in the gut. Ilse seethed. "Not another word. This is not like before and I said that it would not be repeated."

Noah winced at the comment, opening his mouth to say something, but before he got the chance Ilse got up out of bed and padded her way out of the room, grabbing some clothes in the process. Instead, Noah continued to lie in bed lacing his fingers behind his head, letting out a sigh as he took in Ilse's scent still lingering on the pillow.

When Ilse walked downstairs, she was greeted with the lovely smell of breakfast wafting up to her. She quickened her pace and saw Brock making pancakes, piling them on a heaping plate next to the stove. Her mouth watered at the sight.

"Oh, yum!" Ilse exclaimed. "Brock's pancakes!"

Ash, Misty, and Pikachu, who were already seated at the breakfast bar, shot Ilse a curious look.

Realizing her mistake, Ilse tried to backtrack. "I mean, they just smell so good, I'm sure that Brock's pancakes are the best in the world."

Satisfied with the response, Ash smiled a grin full of syrupy goodness and replied, "They are the best in the world," only spitting out a few crumbs in the process.

Misty grimaced. "Sorry, Alyssa. This one's got the body of an eighteen-year-old and the manners of a ten-year-old."

Ilse froze. _Eighteen? _If they were eighteen, that meant that she should be conceived…really soon. And by the looks of things, that hadn't already happened.

Failing to notice Ilse's change in behavior, Ash playfully swatted at Misty, and Brock slid over a plate with a perfect tower of pancakes. Shaking her head free of thought, she grabbed the plate and began to dig in.

Not long after, Noah strolled into the kitchen and plopped down on the stool next to Ilse. Everyone, except Ilse, who was totally involved in her food, turned to look at him. Noticing the sudden silence, Ilse too looked up. "Oh," she said, hastily swallowing the chewed up pancake she had been savoring in her mouth. "I guess that you weren't exactly properly introduced last night. This is Noah. He's a friend from _Hoenn_," she said, putting extra emphasis on Hoenn for Noah's benefit, "like me. We know each other from home."

"Oh," Misty said, seemingly slightly deflated at the word _friend_. "Well, Noah, you can stay here with Alyssa as long as you want to."

Noah smiled his appreciation at Misty and then Brock, who had just passed over another heaping pile of pancakes to him.

"So, I was wondering if maybe Noah and I could take a look around Cerulean today?" Ilse suggested.

"Sure," Brock readily agreed. "We could show you around, couldn't we guys?"

"Well, actually," Misty started, "I have quite a few challenges lined up today; it's kinda the peak of the season for us, actually. So I'll have to take a rain check. The rest of you can go have fun, though."

"Okay, the four of us can go as soon as we're done eating. Or five," he amended, glancing at a berating Pikachu.

Ash and Brock began showing Ilse and Noah all the important locations. The Pokémon Center, the mall that they said Misty had dragged them to on more than one occasion, and more. When they came to the PokéMart, Ilse pulled them all in, saying that she and Noah's trip to Cerulean had been very sudden and she needed to stock up on supplies. She knew that this little mission of theirs could, and inevitably would, turn dangerous very rapidly and she wanted to be prepared when that moment came. The last thing she needed was Noah showing her just how little she had thought this through again. This time she could prove to him that indeed, she was actually thinking ahead for once.

The four of them reached the center of town where there was a beautiful fountain and a bench where Ilse sat down to rest her tired feet. They were still aching from wandering through the Ilex Forest. The boys joined her and they were sitting in comfortable silence. It was good enough for Ilse that her dad was just there beside her.

"So, Ilse, are you a Pokémon Trainer?"

Ilse smiled. That was so like her father. He always had had a one-track mind. "Of course."

Ash visibly perked up. "Oh really? What Pokémon do you have?"

From there, they both got very animatedly into their discussion, bonding over their great love of Pokémon while the other two boys sweat-dropped, sharing glances of amusement. Ilse had learned nearly everything she knew about Pokémon from an older Ash, so she was eager to get his perspective now. Ash, for his part, was over the moon about finding a person who thought the exact same things about Pokémon that he did.

"Hey," Ilse said, interrupting their heated discussion about getting Electric Attacks to work on Ground Types, "we should have a battle."

Ash chuckled. The girl in front of him was so passionate about Pokémon, but she was also so child-like in his eyes. "Alyssa, I'm the Kanto, Johto, and Orange Island reigning Champion. It's not exactly a fair fight."

"_Au contraire_. I think that you underestimate my abilities. It just so happens that I was trained by a Pokémon Master from birth, so this just might be the Battle of your life," Ilse challenged, standing up.

Not ever one to back down from a fight, Ash hopped up as well, "You're on!"

"Okay, okay, guys," Brock interrupted, stepping between them. "Before you guys have a match right here and destroy the Cerulean fountain, let's move this over to the field."

They made their way over to an enormous field near the center of town where Ilse and Ash took their spot on either side, Brock standing in the middle, Noah standing by Ilse, watching on. Brock brought both arms above his head. "This is a one-on-one Battle between reigning Kanto and Johto Champion, Ash Ketchum, and Alyssa of Hoenn. There is no time limit. Begin!" he finished, sweeping both hands down to his sides.

Ash motioned to Pikachu, who swiftly leapt onto the field, cheeks sparking.

Ilse rolled her eyes. "You're so predictable, Ash." She pulled a PokéBall from her 'Belt and released it with a toss of her wrist and a flourish. "PokéBall go!"

The 'Ball opened with a flash of red energy and the light expanded into a rather large, yellow bipedal form.

"An Ampharos!" Ash had to resist the itching urge to pull out his Pokédex out of his pocket and point it at the Electric Pokémon. "Interesting choice."

Said Ampharos was swiveling its long neck around, a look of confusion on its face as it took in its surroundings. It seemed especially puzzled by the person and Pokémon standing across from it. It turned back to Ilse and let out a confused "Am?"

Ilse waved it off—she could explain later. In the meantime, she needed to stay focused on her dad and impressing him.

"Thanks," she called over to him. "Ampharos, Sand Attack!"

Before Ash or Pikachu even got a chance to act, a flurry of soil and grass flew up from the field beneath Ampharos' feet and blew directly into Pikachu's face. Pikachu squealed in discomfort at the dirt blinding its vision and brought its paws up to its eyes to clear the grime away.

"Pikachu, watch out!"

Pikachu put its paws down and blinked furiously in a desperate attempt to see. It opened its eyes wide only to find the Ampharos a few feet away and about to collide with it.

"Take Down!"

"Brace for it, Pikachu, then Spark!"

Ampharos thrust into Pikachu with all its might, making both of them skid backwards, leaving a trail of mud in their wake. As they connected, Pikachu let out a strong Spark Attack, embracing Ampharos' whole body in waves of pulsating electricity. Ampharos grit its teeth as the small red sphere on its tail began to glow brightly, all the electric rings dissipating as they reached it.

At this point, Ilse was jumping up and down in place, keenly watching every move in the Battle. "Use Discharge!"

Pulling itself apart from Pikachu, Ampharos leapt backwards, only to swing its sparking tail widely, directly hitting Pikachu and flinging it across the field. Electricity engulfed Pikachu's airborne body, leaving it crackling with energy at it flew towards the ground.

Pikachu curled its body into a ball so that it rolled as it landed. Once its momentum slowed, it leaned back on its tail and used it to spring back up in the air and shoot down like a bullet, impacting squarely with Ampharos's neck, knocking it to the ground.

"Hah!" Ash exclaimed. "Nice work Pikachu! One last hit and you'll get 'em!"

Pikachu was on all fours on Ampharos's dirtied belly, and was sparking its cheeks in an effort to charge up for a last Thunder Attack.

"Watch out, Ampharos!"

Just as the match-finishing move was about to be discharged, Ampharos' body illuminated eerily and its eyes glowed pink, staring down the Pikachu on its stomach. Pikachu's eyes crossed and it began shaking, unable to keep itself up. It faltered in its release and shocked itself, flying off of Ampharos, who winced as stray bolts of electricity shocked it. Pikachu flopped onto the ground brokenly a few feet away, its body quivering slightly from the aftershocks.

Brock brought a hand up in Ilse's direction. "The match is over," Brock declared. "Alyssa is the winner!"

Ash blinked a few times before running over to pick Pikachu up off of the ground. He cradled it in his arms for a moment, then turned to look at Ilse with awe.

"Wow," he said. "I'm impressed."

"Thank you," Ilse said, a large grin on her face. "That's the best Battle I've had in forever."

Brock sidled up beside Ash, placing an arm around his shoulders. "Hey, maybe Alyssa here should be Champion," he teased.

Ash swatted Brock's arm off of him, grumbling about what a jerk he was.

While Ash and Brock were bickering Noah approached a glowing Ilse. "Nice work back there."

"Thanks, Noah." Ilse continued looking at Ash. "I missed this."

"I know you have," Noah said, reaching out to take Ilse's hand.

Ilse turned to Noah, surprise gracing her features. His lips curved into a small smile and Ilse felt a few butterflies fluttering around in her stomach. She returned the smile and held his hand a little tighter in her own before going to follow the other boys.

Ilse was desperate for a little alone time with her dad to one, put her plan into motion, and two, take advantage of him actually being alive. So, as Ilse was walking she was scanning the area not to get an idea of the sights, but more so to look for the first hot chick that she could use as bait to get Brock and Noah out of the way. Noah hadn't been a great fan of the idea of having to babysit her young Uncle, but Ilse could be very convincing when she wanted to be. Now she just needed a hottie.

Fortunately it only took about five minutes to accomplish that.

After sending Brock packing, along with a reluctant Noah, Ilse walked along with Ash, Pikachu riding on her shoulder. As a child, Pikachu had always been like a third caretaker for her. It seemed that in this world, Pikachu could almost sense their closeness, and had quickly taken a liking to her. It made her feel so much at home and like at least one thing hadn't changed.

Ash was rambling on about how amazing the match had been, congratulating her on various techniques that she had used that he had never thought of before. Ilse interjected the occasional comment or reply, but mostly she was just grinning, flushed with the joy that she got from being showered with the adoration her father had always given her. She was also waiting out for an important part of this walk that she felt could happen at any moment.

"And that Confuse Ray at the end—" Ash was cut off by a very loud stomach grumble.

And there it was.

Ash brought both hands to his stomach, smiling sheepishly at Ilse. "Feel like continuing this conversation over some food?"

Ilse smiled. "I thought you'd never ask."

Noah was exhausted. He had had to approach the girl that Brock had been drooling over to explain to her his friend's uncle-from-the-past's womanizing ways and in the process had managed to charm her into giving him her number. This, in turn, had led Brock to asking Noah a million questions on how to get girls—a conversation you really don't want to get into with the uncle of the girl that you're interested in, even if he is eighteen years younger.

He had managed to drag Brock back to the Gym with the promise of imparting all of his wisdom on getting girl's phone numbers on him. They both walked into the Gym and made their way to the main arena. Misty must have just beaten some sorry chump, because she was kneeled on the ground, healing her Staryu with a few Potions and her clothes were slightly damp with either sweat or water from the pool.

She looked up when she heard footsteps on the tile floors. "Back so soo—hey, where's Ash and Alyssa?" she asked, looking in confusion at the two boys.

"They went out to lunch together," Noah quickly interjected before Brock could answer.

At that, Brock turned to Noah, brows furrowed inquisitively. "They never said anything about that."

"I—Alyssa sent me a message," Noah said, taking out his Pokétch as proof.

Brock looked at Misty and shrugged his shoulders. "Alright," he said, the answer satisfying him.

Misty, on the other hand, was by no means pacified. "They're going out to lunch together? Just the two of them?" She looked at Noah questioningly. "Are you sure?"

Noah looked around the room and said slowly, "Well, we're not with them…"

Before Misty could impart rage of any kind on the seemingly unknowing boy, Brock hastily added, "Well, you know how Ash is. He would spend all his time eating if he could."

Misty still looked displeased, but nodded her head anyway and faked a small smile. "Yeah…okay."

**_Your mom's pissed._**

**_-Noah_**

Ilse and Ash had managed to make it to a pretty nice restaurant for lunch in Cerulean that was only a few blocks from the Gym. They were both enjoying their respective meals, with Pikachu enjoying a small plate of ketchup, and chatting amicably when Ilse had felt a dull buzzing in her pant pocket. Ilse smiled as she conspicuously read the message in her lap.

Usually Ilse would do whatever she could to keep from being on the other side of her mother's temper, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Today, her mother's anger was exactly what she wanted.

Seeing her covert smile, Ash arched his eyebrows at Ilse. "What are you smiling at?"

Quickly Ilse put her Pokétch away and smiled innocently at her father. "Oh, nothing."

Not looking further into her answer, Ash said, "Okay. So what brings you to Cerulean?"

Ilse sighed. That was the million dollar question wasn't it? She knew that the best way to tell a lie was to tell it as close to the truth as possible, so she chose her words carefully. "There's just been a lot of stuff going on at home," Ilse said pensively.

Sensing the mood change in the air, Pikachu crawled from the table into Ilse's lap where she could stroke him mindlessly. She wasn't really in the mood for her food anymore anyway.

Ash slowed his chewing, listening intently. "Like what?"

"Stuff with my mom. She's going through a hard time right now and I'm just trying to make it better," she explained

Ash nodded. "Are you close with your parents?"

Ilse smiled. "Yeah. They're the best people I know."

"Then why aren't you with them?"

Ilse looked up into his eyes. She just couldn't help but tell him everything. "My dad just died a few days ago," she choked out, trying to keep the tears that were beginning to form in her eyes from falling.

"I'm so sorry," Ash said, knowing all too well what it was like to not have a dad.

"My mom…" she started again. "My mom's not doing so well. I-I don't think that she's going to be okay. She's loved my dad since she was a child." This time, Ilse couldn't keep from sniffling as a few tears fell. She swiped them away before they could roll down her face.

Ash walked around the table to hug Ilse, careful not to squish Pikachu as he did so. He didn't know why, but it broke his heart to see the tears filling this girl's eyes. He had the urge to do anything to make her feel better.

She melted into the hug, letting out an enormous happy breath. It had been so long since she had gotten to hug her father. It felt so nice. She never wanted it to stop.

Ilse felt like she was floating. After spending a couple fun hours with her dad, she was on cloud nine. She was clutching a small bouquet of daffodils and forget-me-nots in her hand that Ash had bought for her after lunch, and she wore a smile on her face that she couldn't shake off. Once she entered the Gym, she found her mother, Brock, and Noah in the kitchen eating their own lunch and engaging in easy conversation. When she walked in, they all stopped talking and looked at her.

"Where's Ash?" Misty was the first to ask.

Ilse smiled. "He's right outside. He received a call from the League and said that he would be in in a few minutes."

"I take it you had a good time with Ash?" Brock said, noticing the grin that wasn't leaving Ilse's face.

Ilse sighed happily as she sunk down on a stool beside the others. "Such a good time," she gushed, a dreamy look on her face as she grabbed an empty vase from off the counter to put her flowers into. "We actually decided to do brunch tomorrow morning too."

She beamed at a frowning Misty and then got right back up, practically skipping out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her room, feeling her mother glaring daggers into her back the whole way.

* * *

**A/N: **Longest chapter yet! Woot woot! I really hope that you like it! Tell me what you thought of the first scene and the Battle. The first scene was a last minute addition, so I'm curious to see what you guys think. And I love writing Battle scenes, but I know some people don't like them, so I'm curious to see what you guys thought.

Also I only have one chapter left to write. Well, two...I'm going to rewrite the one that I just wrote. But I'm almost done writing! That means that there will be weekly updates every Wednesday without fail. Unless, you know, I die or something. But you don't have to worry about this story never finishing-I promise it will be! Plus, I leave for college tomorrow. Eeep! Wish me luck!


	6. Icy Stare

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Thank you to the wonderfully fabulous C'sMelody for betaing this chapter about 4 different times. You rock!

* * *

**Icy Stare  
**

When Ash entered the kitchen, he had no idea what he was walking in to. Brock and Noah had scattered soon after Ilse left. They took one look at Misty grinding her teeth and glowering at the refrigerator in front of her and had flown the coop. It was just minutes later that Ash walked in, pocketing his Pokétch, and headed straight into the ring of fire.

Sure, he had finished lunch not even ten minutes ago, but that meant that it was time for the first of many afternoon snacks. He entered the kitchen and opened the fridge, paying Misty no mind as he rooted around for something to munch on. Clearly, he didn't feel the eyes boring into the back of his skull. He finally managed to pull out something halfway edible and closed the refrigerator door, turning to face Misty.

"So, how were the matches today, Mist—"

"I didn't bring you here to date her, you know," Misty said coldly, interrupting him.

Ash faltered, noticing the dark look in Misty's eyes. "Huh? Who?"

Misty scoffed, eyes narrowing even further. "You know who."

"Alyssa?"

Instead of responding, Misty rolled her eyes in a way that clearly said 'Duh.'

"I-I'm not dating her, Misty," he stammered.

Misty folded her arms and glanced at the bouquet not two feet away from her and then looked at Ash, hurt flashing across her eyes. "Those are some beautiful flowers."

Ash looked at her incredulously. "They didn't mean anything! She said that her dad used to buy her flowers after a good match, we were passing by a flower stand—what was I supposed to do?"

"Maybe not ask her on a date tomorrow?"

"It's not a date!" he exclaimed. "We're just going to go eat and then train—" He cut himself off, looked at Misty one more time, then looked down, his voice dropping dangerously low. "What would it matter anyway? We're just friends."

At that, Misty paused for a moment, giving him a look that was positively broken. She blinked, shaking it off and hardened her gaze again. "And whose fault is that?" she spat, and stormed out of the room.

Ash sighed, running his fingers through his ever-disheveled hair. "Misty, wait," he called out weakly. But she was already gone.

Misty Ketchum was the strongest woman that Ilse knew. The grand majority of successful Pokémon Trainers in the world were men and if they ever bothered to get married, it was usually to some beautiful woman who would sit on the sidelines of every match and cheer for her husband, being supportive and looking pretty for the cameras. That wasn't Misty.

Sure, she was every bit as supportive of Ash's career as those trophy wives were, probably even more so, but impressively, she was successful in her own right as well. She had always hammered that point home to Ilse growing up. It was important to do what you want to do, no matter how many people are telling you that you can't.

That's why it was so funny to see her mother jealous.

According to her father, her mother used to be jealous all the time when she was younger, but Ilse had only seen that particular look of envy on her mother's face a handful of times in the past. She never got jealous because while Ash got a lot of attention for being a Pokémon Master for the past twenty years, Misty herself got a number of unbidden suitors as well. Neither of them saw any need to be worried about any of these crazed fans, so they would just calmly give their autographs and move on.

"You know, I'd kind of expected for you to feel a little bad about putting your parents up against each other, but," Noah paused as he watched Ilse practically twirl around the room, an expression of pure bliss on her face, "I guess I was wrong."

Ilse collapsed on her bed, eyes looking up at the ceiling dreamily. "It's for their own good. I'm doing them a favor." Her face shifted to be slightly more serious as she stretched her neck to look up at Noah. "And thank you for taking care of Uncle Brock today. I couldn't have done it without you."

Noah smiled in a way that made little Buttefrees dance happily in Ilse's stomach. "Anytime."

"So phase one is in motion," Ilse said, looking very pleased with herself. "Off without a hitch."

Noah smiled at Ilse's obvious joy. It was nice to see it starting to come back. "So what's phase two?"

Ilse needed to get in a good swim. She was feeling exuberant and was in desperate need of working off her excess energy if she had any hope of falling asleep that night. Additionally, it had been far too long since she'd taken a dip in the Gym, and she really missed it. She took one of Misty's suits and changed into it, grabbed a towel, and headed downstairs.

She threw the towel onto the steel bleachers and moved to the edge of the pool, dipping a toe in before stepping back, ready to dive.

"I know what you're doing."

Ilse started, nearly falling into the pool. "Waa?" she turned around to find her Uncle Brock not two feet away from her, his arms crossed and a grim expression on his face. How did she not notice him come in? It was a huge room—it echoed like nothing else. She should have heard even the most subtle of footsteps. As her heartbeat slowed down, she tried again. "What are you talking about?"

"I know that you're trying to get together with Ash," Brock said, frowning at her. "I thought that our talk at the bar cleared that up, but I guess I didn't get through to you."

"No, that's not what I'm trying to do at all!" Ilse quickly interjected.

"Then what are you trying to do?"

A million lies suddenly came running through Ilse's head. She didn't know if that said good things or bad things about her that lies are what immediately came to mind. Did she want to lie to him? She didn't particularly want to admit her plan to him, but she knew that if anyone would be on board with her, it would be her Uncle Brock. And could she really lie to him?

She decided to go with the truth.

"I'm actually trying to get them together."

Brock's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh," he said, seemingly speechless. "Really?"

Ilse nodded earnestly. "After you talked to me in the bar, I watched them and saw that you were right. I thought that they might need a little push, though," she told him, figuring that a little white lie couldn't hurt. They did have the same cause, after all.

Brock chuckled, looking down at the floor as if embarrassed. "Oh, I should have known."

"No," Ilse said, shaking her head, "you couldn't have known."

Brock just shrugged. Figuring that that was the end of the conversation, Ilse turned away and moved back to the edge of the pool, ready to jump in.

"So tell me about Noah."

Ilse's spine stiffened. "Huh?"

"Tell me about you and Noah," Brock repeated.

Ilse turned around to Brock again. Apparently that hadn't been the end of the conversation. "I told you," Ilse said, blushing a little and looking away. "He's a friend from Hoenn."

Brock raised an eyebrow at her, a look of amusement on his face. "A friend?"

Ilse clenched and unclenched her hands. Even though Brock saw her as a friend, if not someone that he wanted to hit on, Ilse remembered with a shudder, she couldn't help but see him as her uncle. And in all honesty, she didn't want to talk to her uncle about Noah. Anything else, but not that. So she just said, "Yes, a friend."

"Oh, really?" Brock had a look of child-like delight on his face. "So I didn't see you guys in bed together this morning?"

Ilse choked on her own spit. "What?"

"That's why I should have known that you weren't chasing after Ash," Brock said. "I see the way Noah looks at you."

"I, uh," Ilse stuttered.

"And you clearly like him too."

"Um, could we not talk about this?"

Brock smiled, almost enjoying watching her squirm. "Why?"

Ilse sighed, feeling all the frustration that she felt over her and Noah's relationship boil over in that moment. "Ugh," Ilse said as she sat down at the edge of the pool, pulling her legs into her body. Brock followed her, sitting on the closest bleacher. "I don't know!" she exclaimed. "He just…We've known each other for so long…and we've always argued a lot but we've always been friends. He would do anything for me…I know he…cares for me, but I…I don't know what I feel for him. I'm just not sure if he's the right guy for me…"

"Why not?" Brock asked.

"Well, I've seen him with a lot of girls…" Ilse admitted

"Come on," Brock said flippantly, "there's nothing wrong with a lady's man."

Ilse smiled a little at Brock. "I don't mean that he's like you," she said, teasingly. "You know what I mean."

Brock nodded soberly. "I do know what you mean. But look at it like this. Ash is obsessed with Pokémon. They're his whole life. And for a while they got in the way of him and Misty. But someday he'll realize that nothing matters more to him than his relationship with Misty. Except maybe Pikachu." Brock grinned. "Noah's probably the same, except instead of Pokémon, it's girls."

Ilse looked down into the pool water, contemplating what Brock said.

_Splash!_

Ilse felt herself fall into the water, not even getting the chance to gasp before she was completely submerged in the pool. When her head broke the surface she gasped and sputtered. "Hey!" she yelled, trying the wipe the water out of her eyes. "What was that for?"

"What?" Brock smiled innocently. "You weren't planning on going for a swim?"

Ilse glared at Brock, splashing him right in his face. "Jerk."

Brock just laughed. "Not the first time I've had water thrown in my face, kid."

Ilse's face faltered and Brock noticed.

"What?"

A small smile showed on Ilse's face. "You called me kid," she said. "My uncle calls me kid."

Brock smiled back at her. Already a little damp, Brock sat down on the edge of the pool and dangled his legs off the side. "So, tell me about your plan to get Ash and Misty together."

Misty was sitting at a hotel bar, resting her head in her arms. May sat awkwardly beside her, patting her back in what she hoped to be a soothing manner as Misty bemoaned her life.

"Why? Why do I always have to do that?"

May sighed, as she had already heard this question seven times and counting in just the last half hour. "You just have to work on your temper, Misty," May suggested again. "Just think about what you say before you say it."

Misty threw her head up off the counter and swung her head to look at May. "That never works!" she cried as she reached out to begin nursing her Mew-knows-what-number martini. "Everything was just fine—we were friends again and everything—and then Gorgeous McLongLegs has to show up and sweep him off his feet. And then I have to go and yell at him and ruin everything."

"Well," May tried again, "maybe it's not as bad as you think. Ash knows you, he understands that you just get all heated in the moment. He probably doesn't even think that you're really mad."

"Ugh," Misty scoffed as she viciously bit the olive off of its toothpick. "Then he would be an idiot.

May pointedly ignored that that could also be seen as an insult in her direction as well and went on to suggest something else. "You could always just tell him what you're actually feeling."

Misty squinted at May as she munched loudly on her olive. "Are you drunk?"

May threw a quick glance to the counter in front where there were two drinks in front of Misty and only a bottle of water in front of her. "Don't think so."

"Well, you would have to be to say a dumb-ass thing like that," Misty jabbed.

"Misty," May said softly with only a bit of pleading desperation in her voice, "you are clearly in love with him. I know. Brock knows. Drew knows. Everyone knows except for Ash."

"Because he's stupid," Misty grumbled.

"Because he's stupid," May agreed. "And I would wager a bet that he still loves you too, so why can't you both just work it out instead of turning all of your sexual tension into these fights? It's ridiculous."

"Your face is ridiculous," Misty said under her breath as she threw back the rest of her martini. "Refill!"

May shook her head at the bartender mouthing, 'No' and then turned back to Misty. "Do it. You guys are best friends, but you won't be for much longer if you keep up this cockamamie. Just tell him and then you won't feel so miserable."

Misty sat staring sadly at the empty martini glass for a moment, letting out the occasional hiccup as she appeared to be considering the idea. She then slammed her fist down on the table, rattling the bottles on it, straightening her spine as she did so and said, "Damn it, you're right. I have to give that bastard a piece of my mind." She hopped off the barstool, albeit with a slight wobble in her step, and started making her way to the door.

"Wait!" May cried as she got off her barstool to follow Misty. "That's not what I meant!"

"Yes it is, May," Misty declared with a slight slur in her voice, throwing her fist up in the air to emphasize her point. "I need to do this now before this monkey business goes on further."

And with that, she stomped out of the hotel, leaving a bewildered May with the tab.

"Ash Ketchum!"

Misty had slammed open the door to the Gym and her voice was now reverberating off all the walls as she stomped in.

May rushed in after Misty, out of breath and looking a little worse for wear. Despite being drunk, Misty was a speedy little thing and had managed to slip out of May's grasp and get to the Gym faster than May had thought was possible. May felt that this was a surefire sign that she needed to start working out again.

Ash made is way cautiously down the stairs, looking at Misty with deep apprehension. "Misty?"

"_You_," Misty growled darkly from deep in her throat.

Ash threw May a confused glance to which May backed up, both hands in front of her and said, "Well, it seems like you've got it all handled in here, so I'm just gonna leave you two to it." And then she darted out the door.

That left Ash gaping at a fuming Misty who was stomping up the stairs toward him. "Uh…What did I do now?"

"You," Misty repeated, her voice still low and dangerous, "have been messing with my mind for years now, and it's high time that you_ cut it out_." Each word was punctuated with a sharp jab to the chest.

"Misty, I—"

He was cut off by Misty falling onto his chest, tears wracking her body.

Ash was caught off guard. He did all that he felt he could do and put his arms around her, rubbing his hands along her back, his cheek resting against her soft hair. The sobs slowed down to the occasional shudder before Misty began to feel limp in his arms. Ash smiled a little. Misty always got tired when she was drunk. He lifted her carefully into his arms and made his way back up the stairs towards her room. Once in, he laid her softly in her bed and he went to take off her shoes. He then put a blanket on top of her sleeping form and crawled in next to her.

"Oh my gosh, you guys have to come see this." Brock popped his head into Ilse and Noah's room, a wild expression on his face.

Ilse and Noah looked at each other with twin puzzled expressions on their faces.

"Uh," Ilse started, "what is it?"

Brock just waved off the question, moving to physically pull them both out of the room and drag them down the hallway. Both followed, albeit a bit reluctantly, and found themselves outside of Misty's door.

Noah turned to Brock with a blank expression on his face. "What are we looking at?"

Brock put a finger up to his lips, gesturing for them to keep quiet. He then put his hand out and slowly opened the door just a crack. The three of them pulled forward, poking their heads in and there was a collective gasp.

"Well isn't that something?" Ilse murmured.

Brock pulled the other two away from the door and a little ways down the hallway. "I know that that may not look like much to the both of you, but this is a huge deal for them," Brock exclaimed quietly. "I'm going to go tell Drew and May about this, but you two have to be quiet and not disturb them, alright?"

Brock left the two teens in the hallway and Ilse turned to Noah, a grin spreading on her face from ear to ear. "It worked!" she half-squealed, half-whispered.

"They're still wearing their clothes, though," Noah observed. "Nothing happened."

Ilse rolled her eyes at him. "I know that, but this is phase one," Ilse explained. "Now we can move on to bigger and better things.

"Okay," Noah conceded. "But it's getting late and all the plotting and scheming hasn't given us nearly enough sleep, so let's hit the hay."

At the mention of sleep, Ilse felt a wave of drowsiness hit her. "Mm, sounds good."

Misty was always a morning person. Since she was young she always had early morning duties, whether it was tending to the Pokémon in the Gym or continuing a trek to Ash's next Gym Badge or just a swim to wake her up; she had just had to get used to it. This morning when she awoke she felt warm and content and, for once, felt like she didn't want to get out of bed. She breathed out a happy hum and in doing so felt an unnatural weight on her stomach. Eyes still closed, she crinkled her brows in confusion. That wasn't normal. She opened one eye and glanced down to see a tanned arm flung across her waist.

Now that definitely wasn't normal.

She bolted up into a sitting position and instantly groaned, clutching her head. "Ugh."

A similar sound was emanated from the body next to her and rolled over, effectively pulling all of Misty's covers off of her. Glaring maliciously at the half-asleep figure next to her, Misty gripped a corner of the comforter and pulled it as hard as she could, spinning the other person off of the bed. She grit her teeth as the throbbing in her head continued, but smiled through it as she heard a satisfying thud on the other side of the bed. She only felt a little bit repentant when she heard a strangled squeak from the same direction.

"Sorry, Pikachu," Misty called out weakly.

At that, Ash sat up, clutching his side and wincing. "No sorry to me?" he asked.

Misty crossed her arms and arched her eyebrow at him. "No," she said bluntly.

Ash frowned. "Sounds about right, actually."

Misty clutched her head again, grimacing as she began to feel all of the unpleasant sensations of a hangover. Her tongue felt fuzzy, her eyes were all puffy, and this headache was definitely going to last all day. "I would say so. I didn't ask you into my bed." She paused and pondered that statement. "Did I?" she asked meekly.

Ash shook his head, lifting Pikachu to his lap and ruffling its head. "No. But you were drunk and I helped you into bed."

"And decided to help yourself to my bed too?" Misty added sardonically.

"Oh Mew," Ash exclaimed when he glanced at the clock. "It's 5:30 AM! That's it, I'm going back to sleep." With that, he crawled back into Misty's bed and pulled the covers back that Misty had yanked from under him, cocooning himself in them. Misty allowed herself one lingering glance at Ash's peaceful sleeping form before deciding to go on a search for some pain relievers and about a gallon of water.

Ilse had inherited the early-bird gene from her mother and found herself rolling over to glance at the clock at the merry hour of six o'clock. Despite the early hour, Ilse crawled out of bed, careful not to disturb the sleeping Noah, who was separated from her only by two pillows down the center of the bed. The sun had not yet risen, so the room was cast in complete darkness, with only a sliver of moonlight showing through the windows.

Itching to go for a swim, Ilse fumbled around the room in search for a swimsuit. She eventually found one and headed down to the enormous pool in the Gym for an early morning dip.

Once she made it there, Ilse felt around on her 'Belt for a specific 'Ball on it. Upon finding it, she pressed the small white button in the middle of it and a bright red light lit up, forming a small quadruped with a fin-like mane around its neck and a long split tailfin swinging behind it. The red light immediately faded with the 'Ball closing, leaving the aquarium almost completely dark. There was something very soothing to Ilse about swimming in the dark; it felt like there was nothing around her except for the water and, in this case, her Vaporeon.

Ilse immediately dove into the water and then began to swim shallow laps, her dark hair floating loosely behind her. Her Vaporeon had jumped into the water as well and was paddling into the water, its body turning liquid as it went deeper in the pool until it could no longer be distinguished from the rest of the water. As Ilse swam deeper and deeper in the pool she almost felt like she was turning into water as well. And there, all was right in the world.

Ash couldn't help but be excited to take Alyssa to lunch. They had both decided on an early brunch, because neither of them liked waiting long for food, so it was nine o'clock when they headed out. They had made it to a quaint little restaurant and sat themselves at an outside table, so that they could enjoy the lovely Cerulean weather.

He knew it was strange, especially for him, but he couldn't help but feel a strong bond with the girl. Of course, they had only known each other for a few days, but it was so easy to talk with her. She was just like Misty only a little nicer. Her voice was a little deeper and she seemed to have no problem with peppers or carrots—bugs were still yet to be seen. They were very similar but they had enough differences that made them completely different to him.

Like how she let him ramble on about Pokémon as much as he wanted, matching him breath for breath. Not that he particularly minded Misty interrupting him and calling him names anymore, but it was nice to impart his opinions about Pokémon on such a willing subject. Even though he and Alyssa were the same age, he felt as though she was a younger student and he was guiding her. It made him feel warm and needed. And it didn't hurt that Pikachu had taken a strong liking to her too.

After talking for over a half-hour straight—only spewing a few crumbs out of their mouth as they did so—they had come to a content silence. They had been sitting that way for a few minutes, continuing to eat the remains of their food, and not feeling pressed to talk. He liked just being around her alone, not with the others, so he didn't mind or feel the need to start up a random topic like he usually did with people. So he felt comfortable just to sit. That's why it surprised him when Alyssa suddenly said his name.

"Hmm?" He raised his eyebrows at her and slowed his chewing, showing interest.

"Uh…"

He could see a look of discomfort on her face that she didn't usually have when she talked to him. She was glancing away, hesitant to make eye contact, looking as though she was struggling to get the words out. He gave her an encouraging look, urging her to just say what she wanted to say.

Apparently that was all she needed as she quickly blurted out the words, "Why did you and Misty break up?"

That caught Ash off-guard. His jaw went slightly slack, heavy with half-chewed food in his mouth. Regaining composure, he blinked a few times and swallowed his food. "Why do you ask?" he questioned, in a half-hearted attempt to skirt the subject.

"Well, you guys just seem so perfect together," Alyssa said, a wide-eyed innocence in her face that made her look like a child to Ash. "And I can see that she really loves you," Alyssa quietly added on, almost as an afterthought.

That felt like a punch right to Ash's stomach. He sighed. "Love was never the problem."

Alyssa looked at Ash attentively, almost as if she hadn't expected him to respond. It felt weird telling this girl—this girl he hardly knew—the whole story, but he felt compelled to. Like he was supposed to. So it just started spilling out before he could second-guess himself.

"We started dating when we were fifteen. At that point we had been together practically every day for five years, so it was almost like we had been in a relationship the whole time. The transition was easy and natural; it felt right. Hardly anything really changed, because we really had already been in love with each other. The relationship was really good for a long time. Misty was with me when I became Champion and for a while we were just really happy…"

Ash paused, hesitant to continue and glanced at Alyssa. He almost thought he saw a smile on her face, but she quickly wiped it away when she saw him look at her. Instead, she nodded at him to keep going. He had reached the point in the story that he wasn't so eager to tell to Alyssa. But he'd gotten this far, so he decided to just take a breath and go for it.

"The Champion's job can be pretty boring. He spends a lot of time doing paperwork and waiting for challengers, which only come around once in a blue moon." Ash sighed. "I was really bored. I started getting restless, just staying in one place like that. I was ready to give up my seat when I was given an opportunity. As a Pokémon Master, I was seen as powerful enough to go on dangerous missions to go after criminals such. It was a lot more appealing than sitting around waiting for Battles that would never happen. So I went off and started going on missions. It was great. Except for one thing.

"I never got to see Misty anymore. It was bad enough when we were living in different cities, but at least we could visit each other. With my new job, I wasn't able to even tell her where I was or contact her. Aside from that, she wasn't a big fan of me being sent on dangerous missions without her beside me. In the past she had always been fine with danger, but we had always been together to watch out for each other.

"Of course, you could blame most of the danger on the missions, but I also tended to be a little reckless. I ended up with more success than I would have had had I been completely careful, but it also led to me being hurt a lot. Then there was one time when I got really hurt. I got hit by a few really strong Pokémon Attacks and ended up in a coma. They weren't sure that I was going to wake up. Luckily, I only ended up being out for a few days, but that was enough to worry Misty sick. After that, she told me that she couldn't stand me risking my life like that. I had to be more careful because she couldn't stand worrying about me like that. I told her I would be more careful, but ended up being hurt on the very next mission. It wasn't bad, but it was enough for Misty to leave. She didn't set an ultimatum or anything—she wouldn't do that to me. But she couldn't put herself through that anymore."

When Ash looked up, he expected Alyssa to be giving him a look of sympathy or maybe even looking sad. He was surprised to see a big grin on her face. Confusion quickly took over his face. "What are you smiling about?"

Alyssa's face twitched as if she was trying to stop smiling, but couldn't. "I'm sorry," she said, once she was finally able to return her face to neutral. "I don't mean to seem insensitive, but that's not a bad breakup at all. You could totally get back together!"

Ash still looked a little confused as he looked at Alyssa's naïvely hopeful face. "Don't you see? She sees it as I chose my career over her. Which," Ash looked away, glaring as if mad at himself," I kind of did. She will probably never forgive me."

"Don't be so sure," Alyssa said, shaking her head. "You just have to show her that that's not true."

"How do I do that?" Ash asked, a skeptical look on his face.

"With my help."

* * *

**A/N:** Ah, so we got a lot of insight into Ash and Misty's past. Interesting? Terrible? And how do you like drunk!Misty? Tell me everything!**  
**

Classes started today! I'm officially in college now. My legs are dying from ballet placement yesterday and 8:30am ballet classes today. Please pray for me not to break my legs. And for me to have time to finish the last two chapters of this story before the two and a half months of backed up, already-written chapters that I have saved. Don't worry, I one-hundred percent promise it will happen. Don't worry about a thing. Except for me dying in my heavy course-load-that's a very real possibility. Much love!


	7. Steamed Up

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Special thanks and cupcakes to my beta C'sMelody!

* * *

**Steamed Up**

Misty was upset when she got up that morning. She knew that Ash and Alyssa were going out again and she couldn't help but feel the jealousy well up inside of her and consume her. She heard them leaving the house and could have sworn she heard Ash call Alyssa stunning.

It felt like a knife in her chest.

"She was wearing my dress," Misty muttered under her breath as she went to the pool to train her Pokémon.

She'd been so preoccupied with all the Alyssa business that, outside of Battles, she hadn't been giving them hardly any attention. Maybe she could fit a swim in too, since she had had to skip it this morning due to her hangover.

She put her hands up to her head to rub her temples. "Damn you, Ash."

Feeling miserable, Misty went to the pool and tried to lift her spirits by spending time with her Pokémon. It actually did help a little to be in the water, doing what she loved. After a couple hours she did feel a little better. Of course, the painkillers did help.

After that she took a shower and decided to take a nap. The constant emotional distress was wearing her out even more than training. As soon as her head hit the pillow, she was out.

She woke up a little while later, squinting as she opened her eyes. She'd been so out of it that she hadn't even turned out the lights. Glancing at the clock on her nightstand she realized that she'd been asleep for nearly two hours. Misty groaned as she pushed herself up off the bed. The throbbing in her head came back, however it was a much duller ache than it had been that morning. She barely noticed it.

Throwing her legs off the edge of the bed, Misty stretched, closing her eyes as she yawned. The nap did make her feel reinvigorated, but a little drowsy too. The bright lights that she had woken up to weren't exactly helping either. When she opened her eyes again, feeling a little bit more awake, her eyes settled on something.

A bouquet of roses?

In her room?

For her?

Misty looked at the flowers curiously. Roses always had been her favorite. But she hadn't told anybody that. Even when she and Ash were dating.

She leaned down to touch the bouquet. The petals felt like velvet on her fingertips and the smell was subtle, yet intoxicating. She then noticed a small square of paper hanging off of one of the stems. A note?

A grin broke out on Misty's face as she read the note and she immediately started feeling lighter. She eagerly scampered out of her room and down the stairs to the kitchen.

As predicted, Ash was standing there in the kitchen seemingly waiting for her. She instantly threw herself into his arms and felt him holding her close in a way she hadn't felt for what seemed like forever. She looked up at him, her eyes glittering with hope and unshed tears. "Do you mean it?"

Ash nodded. "The only thing in the world I would even dream of giving my life to is you."

Misty looked down, letting the slightest bit of fear show on her face. "How do I know for sure?"

Ash didn't know how to answer that. If nothing else, he could always be counted on to be reckless, and put his life in danger. Yes, he had gotten smarter over the years, but he knew that it was hurting Misty when he did so. And nothing caused him more pain than hurting Misty. Being apart from her for such a long time wrenched at his heart every day. So he said the only thing he could. "Because I promise. I promise never to leave you again."

And then they were kissing. They were kissing so passionately they could hardly manage to move up the stairs and in the direction of Misty's bedroom.

Roses were her favorite flower. Alyssa had told him.

He asked her how she could possibly know that, given that she had only known Misty for a couple of days. He had dated her for a year and didn't know that. A look of what almost seemed like guilt, like she had been caught doing something she wasn't supposed to flickered on her face. Whatever it was, though, she quickly recovered.

Roses were the epitome of romance, she had explained. And Misty seemed like quite the romantic from what she gathered. This was how she was so sure that she would take him back. Any romantic is dying for a declaration of true love and will hop into the arms of any person who provides them with a movie moment. Sure, Misty acted like she didn't need that stuff, but Alyssa said to trust her. Any girl who says that she doesn't need epic romance is actually dying for it.

Additionally roses were one of the few flowers that weren't associated with her sisters. Having sisters that were all named after flowers kind of limited your possibilities.

So, Ash set out and bought a bouquet of red roses. He asked Alyssa why red, and she sighed in exasperation. Rolling her eyes at him she explained that every color rose meant something different when given to another person. Seeing a look of confusion still on Ash's face, she explained further. Yellow roses meant friendship or loyalty, white roses were used at weddings, so on and so forth. At the very least, Misty would know that red roses meant love.

Ash wondered why Alyssa was so sure that Misty would know that.

Alyssa had a 'duh' expression on her face when she blatantly told him that anyone with two brain cells knew that.

When they finally were done with the, as far as Ash was concerned, all too complicated process of choosing flowers, it was time to work on the note.

Alyssa had told him just to write from the heart, but that had left him sitting there with a pen in his hand and no ink on the paper in front of him. She muttered something about having to do everything herself and how hopeless guys were, but he could see her grinning at him.

He asked her what she was grinning at and she replied to him simply, "This is the you that Misty loves. Never change that."

But then the moment was gone and Ash saw that Alyssa's face had pure determination on it. She then began spoon-feeding him the letter. She told him that he needed to apologize for the things that Misty was feeling hurt over. He needed to let her know that she was the most important thing in the world to him. She needed to know that she was the only person in the world for him and that she didn't need to worry.

When they were done with the note, he noticed Alyssa grinning with something akin to personal accomplishment.

"Wow," he told her. "You'd almost think that you had some sort of personal stake in this going well."

"Yeah," Alyssa said vaguely. "You'd almost think that I did."

"Isn't it weird to watch your parents like this?" Noah asked Ilse.

Ilse and Noah were both crouched outside the Gym, looking at Ash and Misty fumbling up the stairs through one of the large windows. They were barely concealed from Ash and Misty and, in all honesty, looked quite creepy outside the Gym where anyone could see them. Noah had voiced his concern over this, but Ilse assured him that her parents would be too involved in each other to even come close to seeing them. She was right.

Ilse scoffed. "Let's just say that this isn't the first time that I've seen them like this," she said, shuddering a little at the memories that crossed her mind. "Besides," she stated, "it's cute. It's like having our own little romance movie right in front of us."

"Well," Noah said as he moved to peek through the window again. "It looks as though phase two is almost complete."

Ilse nodded in agreement, a wild smile on her face, as she too looked through the window. "Onto phase three!" she said giddily.

"Yeah, and what's that?"

Ilse arched her eyebrow smugly at Noah. "Keep Ash and Misty together."

"And in the meantime?"

Ilse's happy expression switched to one of confusion as she saw desire burning in Noah's dark eyes. "Huh?" was all she was able to manage, as his eyes turned her spine to gelatin.

Noah put his hand on her jaw and slowly moved his face towards hers. Ilse felt her eyes flutter closed and her lips relax. She could feel his breath intertwining with hers and she felt herself melt, waiting for him to kiss her the way only he could kiss her. Where her world stopped and nothing existed but the two of them in that moment.

Then nothing.

Ilse blinked confusedly at a grinning Noah who was sitting back on his heels. "You were going to let me do that."

"What?" Ilse asked, still not fully functioning.

"You were going to let me kiss you," Noah replied. "No smack to the face or anything."

And with that, Ilse smacked Noah in the face. "Well, you got your wish, jerk!" she exclaimed, her cheeks heating up with both rage and embarrassment. Ugh, how could she let him get to her?

Even though he could still feel the sharp sting of her hand coming into contact with his face, he was still smiling at her…No, he was laughing at her. That just made her angrier. The tips of her ears were red and you could practically see the steam coming out of them. "I can't believe you!" she cried. "I regret the day I ever slept with you!"

Noah's expression changed at that. He narrowed his eyes at her and before she knew it, he had her pushed against the wall of the Gym, right up beside the window that they had been sneaking glances through. He had one hand on her shoulder and the other firmly at her waist and his mouth couldn't have been more than an inch away from hers. "Oh, really?" he whispered.

And then the gap closed. He was kissing her fiercely, his tongue against her lips demanding entrance. At first she pursed her lips tightly, refusing to respond to his ministrations, but he finally broke her down, his tongue finding its way into her mouth. She melted into it and suddenly his hands weren't keeping her pushed up against the wall, but were keeping her from crumpling to the ground. She began feeling lightheaded and she wasn't sure if the sensation was from his ruthless kisses or from the distinct lack of oxygen, but she didn't care, she just didn't want it to stop.

Then he stopped.

He abruptly pulled back, his breathing only slightly labored in comparison to Ilse's heavy panting. He let go of his hold on her and it was all she could do to keep from falling to the ground right there. "The moment you find someone that can leave you breathless like that you can say what you want." He looked passionately at her. "Until then, don't even think about regretting us."

_She didn't mean for it to happen. She really didn't._

_They had been traveling together just the two of them for a good six years with only the occasional additional partners. Most of the time it was just the two of them, Ilse and Noah, Noah and Ilse traveling and training together. _

_She wouldn't let herself fall in love with him._

_She made all kinds of excuses. He struck her at first. He was unlike anyone she had ever met. That was what propelled her to follow him. But that was it. She didn't feel anything more._

_He had beaten her! No one ever beat her! And while that intrigued her, it also made her always look at him with narrowed eyes and an arched eyebrow. She was surprised that it didn't give way to premature wrinkling._

_Well, not exactly. She was only ten when it started._

_Then by age eleven her excuse was that he was mean. Actually, he wasn't exactly mean, but that's what she took it as._

_ He was quiet. He didn't always respond to her, didn't always understand her. That combined with her temper and her having a tendency to think that she was always right made him the mean one. And who would be interested in a mean guy like him? He could still be her best friend, but she was by no means _interested_ in him._

_Then a few years down the line it was about the other girls. Slowly but surely the interest that he had never shown in them had started to finally snake its way out of him. Suddenly, just like with Pokémon, every new girl was a new challenge; he practically caught them just the same, if not easier._

_And who would be interested in a guy who was so into every girl but her?_

_But what she didn't realize, refused to realize, was that all of those other girls were mere distractions, providing him with almost the thing that he wanted, but not quite._

_She didn't notice that he was falling in love with her._

_How could she, when all she thought about was how she was not, simply _not_, falling in love with him?_

_So the first time it happened it caught them both by surprise. He wanted it, but didn't think he could ever have it. She wanted it, but refused to allow herself to believe it. It was a perfect pairing of imperfections._

_They were just on the cusp. All they needed was a little jump start._

_And Noah leaving for a few months was just that for Ilse. It was out of the blue. He didn't tell her where he was going, why he was going there, or when he would be back. Just that he didn't think that it would be that long._

_It left her feeling very perplexed. They'd been traveling together for over six years and then he just up and leaves with no explanation as to why? He didn't have any family to speak of, so she was really left in the dark. And that upset her._

_But mostly it just left her lonely and missing him._

_That was all she felt though. She only missed him. Because they were best friends. Nothing more. And that's exactly how she wanted it._

_But then, as randomly as he left, he came back._

_She had been in some faraway region, and she had no idea how he found her. But there he was, right before her eyes, in the flesh. _

_Noah._

_Even though only a few months had passed, he looked older. More mature, more rugged. But it was still him. Just him as more of a man and less of the boy that she had known for what felt like her whole life. But it was still her Noah._

_She didn't even know why she did it. It just came over her. She ran up to him and kissed him full on the lips without even thinking about it._

_And she didn't think about it for the next few hours._

_After that, she told herself, and him, that it was a mistake that wouldn't happen again. She turned away before she could see the way his face fell and his eyes dulled. All she heard was him emotionlessly agreeing with her._

_Despite all that, everything went back to normal quickly. She acted as though it didn't happen and she was damn good at it. And to protect his heart he did the same. They traveled together again, were best friends, and never spoke of it._

_Then Ilse and Noah both competed in a huge League competition. Noah was knocked out early by the Trainer who actually ended up winning the whole thing. Ilse lost in the semi-finals._

_After that loss Ilse had faced to Noah on the first day that they met, she had tried her best to become a gracious loser. She really had. And it had worked. Most of the time. But she was her father's daughter, and sometimes a loss was simply crushing._

_And she found herself running into his arms again._

_Had that been the circumstances of their first time she probably wouldn't have done it. And, to be fair, he probably wouldn't have done it either. But after that first time, it became a kneejerk reaction. Every time something went wrong, she went to Noah. And then she would end it by saying that it was a mistake that wouldn't happen again._

_But it was just physical. She didn't feel anything._

_At least, that's what she told herself._

The second the words left his lips, he walked back into the Gym, leaving Ilse to finally let her knees buckle out from under her and collapse onto the ground. She was still breathing heavily and only half-heartedly looked around to make sure that no passersby had noticed their little display outside the Gym. Fortunately it was a little late, so there weren't a ton of people out and about in this part of the city but, on the other hand, the Gym was illuminated all around with bright florescent lights, so they weren't hidden at all.

It took a few minutes more for Ilse to finally be able to stand on her wobbly legs and make it back into the Gym. She wasn't worried about Noah anymore and, in fact, was trying to clear him out of her mind. She had to get back into plan mode. She quietly tiptoed up the stairs and crawled toward Misty's door. Grabbing the handle and moving it ever so slowly in order to open the door without a sound, she creaked the door open just enough to peek through. Her heart stopped with what she saw.

A box of condoms was spilt on the floor, clearly haven fallen from the dresser above, littering the floor with both used and unused condoms.

Ilse felt the air burst out of her and then kicked herself mentally. What was she going to do now? She couldn't wage all of her bets of being conceived of a ripped condom.

She should have poked holes in the damn things.

* * *

**A/N: **Ash and Misty are together! Yay! Finally! Sorry this chapter is on the shorter side. The last couple have been particularly long but not all of them will be. They will vary from about 2K to 5K. The next one's probably even shorter. Anyway, what did you think of this Noah/Ilse scene?

College hasn't killed me yet. I will keep you updated. So far it has been 95% good. So that's good! See you next week.


	8. The Calm

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Thanks to my beta C'sMelody. One of these scenes was entirely her idea, so she deserves extra virtual cupcakes today.

* * *

**The Calm…**

Misty woke up to sun shining brightly through her curtains, practically blinding her the moment she opened her eyes. That was unusual. Usually Misty found herself up before the sun. But that wasn't the only unusual thing.

Well, actually, at this rate it was becoming increasingly usual.

Misty yet again found a tan arm slung against her waist and a warm body pressed against her back. All at once the events of last night came back to her and she realized why her body was perfectly content to stay in bed. Sighing happily, Misty decided that sleeping in one day wasn't so bad and so she snuggled herself back down into her pillows, ready to go back to sleep.

Not quite yet, though. Having felt her slight shifting, the body beside her let out a groan. "Misty?" Ash rasped, moving the hand that was on her waist to rub his eyes.

"Mm," Misty hummed, moving her body closer to his. "Good morning."

"Good morning," Ash said groggily, not quite the morning person that Misty was.

"Neither of us were drunk last night," Misty commented, smiling at the memory.

"Nope," Ash agreed, only half listening to the conversation. His eyes were closed and he was most of the way to falling back asleep.

Misty sighed blissfully and decided to follow in his footsteps. In this moment, life seemed perfect. Why not let the moment last a little longer? That was the last thought in her mind as she let herself drift back to sleep.

* * *

He had to see it for himself.

Even though he felt like he'd had more than enough of a taste from the muffled sounds he had heard the night before, he still had to _see_ it. He might not have been the biggest fan of the thought of his two younger companions being together physically, but he loved nothing more than the period in which Ash and Misty were together.

So when Alyssa came skipping into breakfast that morning with Noah and a chipper expression on his face, he had a sneaking suspicion as to what had her so excited. After her confessing the magic that she was working on the two of them along with the noises through the walls, it was probably safe to say that it was more than simple suspicion.

And, of course, Alyssa informed him that he was indeed correct

Brock felt a wide, unabashed grin spread on his face and he felt his heart swell for his two companions. Being swept up in the feeling of joy, he hardly even noticed the remaining shadow on Alyssa's face. He always found that she was very easy to read, almost as easy for him as Ash and Misty were. He asked her what was the matter, but she just looked up at him with an innocent expression on her face and replied that nothing was wrong.

Obviously he didn't believe her. But he decided to let it go, because the fact of the matter was that Ash and Misty were back together and nothing could rain on that parade. He didn't worry about it for long anyhow, because Alyssa, as usual, inhaled her breakfast and then she and Noah headed out. Presumably to celebrate the success of Ash and Misty getting back together. Alyssa and Ash weren't going out until dinner that day anyway, so they had time to just bask in the victory.

That left Brock anxiously waiting for Ash and Misty to get up. It was unusual for Misty especially to take so long to rouse in the morning—it was only added evidence to the fact that they must have hooked up the night before. While he waited, Brock busied himself with cleaning the house. He was going to leave that afternoon, so he might as well take one last round in the Gym before it fell to Misty's lone care.

A couple hours later, Brock heard the distinct sound of two pairs of footsteps padding down the stairs. Trying not to appear too eager, he rushed back to the kitchen and began making a second round of breakfast. But when Ash and Misty came into view hand and hand, he couldn't contain his excitement.

"You guys hooked up!"

The exclamation caused both Ash and Misty to blush and exchange an awkward glance with each other, immediately dropping their hands. Yes, Brock had caught them in, er, precarious positions before, but he was still like an older sibling to them. Being called out by him was practically like being called out by a parent.

"Maybe," Misty squeaked, immediately shoving food into her still red face.

Both Ash and Misty had seated themselves at the breakfast bar and were staring into their plates, not noticing as Brock crept around them. When he was standing in between them, he grabbed each of them in one arm and pulled them close, nearly off their stools.

"I'm so happy for you guys!" he gushed.

"Er, thanks, Brock," Ash choked out, his sound being stifled both by Brock's one-armed death grip, as well as the mouthful of half-chewed food threatening to fall back onto his plate.

Brock stepped away, blissfully unaware of the discomfort he was causing them and went back to his corner of the kitchen. "I just wish I weren't going back to Pewter today," he said wistfully. "I can't trust Ash not to screw it up."

"Hey!" Ash cried woundedly, having abruptly recovered from the awkwardness he had just been feeling.

Misty just smirked. "Yeah, don't screw it up, Ash."

Brock nodded along. "I won't be here to help you. And I don't know what the two of you would do without me." He looked at the two of them earnestly with every word as though he truly expected for them to be lost without him.

Ash and Misty both narrowed their eyes at him.

"Go home, Brock."

* * *

For the next little while, all was calm in the Cerulean City Gym. Ash had quickly flown to the League to discuss his change in duties. It ended up being a simpler switch than anyone had anticipated and now he was doing most of his work via email while staying happily with Misty. He didn't even have to go to the League to do his work for a while.

Brock had left Cerulean to go tend to his own Gym, not to mention his family, in Pewter. He claimed that he had only been requested to stay in Cerulean while Misty's cousin was getting to know people and now that it had been a little while, he wasn't needed anymore. Besides, he only felt comfortable leaving his Gym in the hands of his parents for so long. They really did need him more there than Misty did. At the very least, to check in.

For Misty's part, she did start acting more amicably around Alyssa. Any resentment that she had been holding before melted away after she and Ash got together officially. They even found themselves sharing their morning swims with each other and their Pokémon. It was growing to be a nice friendship. They connected in a way Misty couldn't describe.

"You're really okay with it?" May asked, a surprised look showing on her face through the video phone.

'It', of course, referred to Alyssa and Ash being out to eat and train yet again, while Misty was left alone at the Gym. That being since Noah was out training or something—she didn't keep tabs on the boy. He always seemed to be out doing something. She had just finished the chores that needed to be done that day and decided to take a moment to call May, who was no longer in town now that the contest was over.

Misty shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, it's something they do," Misty replied casually. "He really likes her, but the way he talks about her is almost as though she's a little girl. It's hard to feel threatened by that."

May nodded. "That makes sense." She then grinned at Misty. "I'm just glad that you finally have that temper and you're crazy jealousy under control!" she teased.

"Hey, I've never been jealous!" Misty huffed at May, glaring at her through the screen.

May giggled. "Okay, maybe not the temper."

Misty rolled her eyes and said that she had to go, claiming that she wanted to get in an afternoon swim. She said her goodbyes to May and hung up the phone to the sound of the front door opening. Misty turned around, a smile on her face when she saw Ash and Alyssa coming through the door with Noah behind them.

"We found him when we were walking home," Ash said by means of explanation after Misty had greeted him with a kiss on the cheek.

He and Misty watched as Noah and Alyssa went upstairs.

"What are you making that face for?"

Unconsciously, Ash had been glaring at the back of Noah's head as he ascended up the stairs. Misty looked at him, a bemused expression on her face.

"I just don't like him."

Misty rolled her eyes. "You just don't know him yet. He seems nice enough."

"Oh, no, he's definitely a cool guy," Ash backtracked. "I just don't like him for Alyssa."

"You seem almost protective of her," Misty said, arching her eyebrows at him.

"I_ do_ feel protective of her. She's a smart kid, but she seems so naïve to the world."

Misty couldn't help but scoff. "You're one to talk. I had never seen such a wide-eyed, bumbling fool until I met you."

"Hey!" Ash said, a wounded look appearing on his face. "That was when I was ten!"

"Sure," Misty agreed, giving him a plastic smile. "Only when you were ten."

And that's how the chase ensued.

* * *

"Well, Operation Keep Ash and Misty Together seems to be going well," Noah noted once the two of them made it into Ilse's room. Ilse wasn't wearing the maddening grin that she usually did after spending time with her dad, and she promptly flopped on the bed and groaned. "What, ate too much food?"

Ilse grunted as a response.

"Well, then what is it?" Noah asked, growing impatient.

Ilse sat up on the bed and pulled her knees to her chest. "I miss home."

"What brings this on?"

With her face buried in her comforter, Ilse mumbled, "I just spent an hour telling my dad about my childhood, all the things he taught me, my best friend—his goddaughter, everything that my dad is supposed to know. I just miss home."

Noah sighed and sat down on the bed next to her. "I know you do. But you have your Pokémon, and you have your parents, kinda, and Brock and Drew and May."

"Do I have you?" Ilse looked up at him, her enormous green eyes boring into him and showing her every emotion.

He replied without hesitation. "Of course."

He put his arm around her and pulled her close until she was leaning her whole body up against his side.

After they had been sitting like that for a few moments, Noah spoke up. "I understand that you have to do this, but be careful, okay?"

"What do you mean?"

"There's a lot of things in this world we don't understand. All these crazy things happen, yet the world inexplicably comes out unaffected."

Ilse wasn't leaning against him anymore. "What are you trying to say?" she asked, looking at him with narrowed eyes.

"We're messing with things that we don't have any comprehension of. I'm just saying that we don't know what we're going home to, and the longer we stay here the more uncertain it will be. Things could be exactly the same or unbelievably different."

"You think my dad is still going to be dead?" Ilse accused, her voice growing higher in pitch.

"I never said that," Noah defended.

"But you thought it!"

"Did not."

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!" Ilse huffed, pushing Noah off the bed. As much as she was trying to just look angry, she couldn't hide the shreds of hurt that were showing through her eyes. "I believe that my dad wasn't supposed to die," she said, her voice thick with emotion. "That's why Celebi helped us in the first place."

Noah gave a small smile from his place on the floor. "Ilse, I think so too."

Ilse smiled back at him, though still slightly tearful, and slid off the bed and down next to him on the plush carpet. "You wouldn't have followed me if you didn't think so."

Noah shook his head. "I would have followed you even if I thought you were Zubat-shit crazy."

Ilse laughed and leaned up against him again, nuzzling her face into the crook of his neck.

* * *

Ash and Misty had moved to the kitchen, as was becoming their habit. After Ash would come back from hanging out with Alyssa, he and Misty would go to the kitchen, feed their Pokémon, and then themselves. Misty always made fun of him for going straight for the food right after going out to eat, but Ash always defended himself by saying that he had just hard training session with Alyssa and he needed to keep up his strength.

"Well, just wait until you're thirty, and we'll see that strength turn into a substantial pot-belly," Misty jested.

They had just finished pouring out the last of the PokéChow when Ash and Misty heard a high-pitched sing-song voice from the foyer. "We're back!"

In flounced Daisy, Violet, and Lily with piles of luggage and perfect tans. Misty blinked in surprise. "Well, don't we get, like, a hug, baby sister?" Daisy questioned, dropping her bags loudly on the floor and outstretching her arms.

"And her boyfriend too," Lily gushed.

As Daisy was squishing Misty against her, Violet piped up. "Isn't that, like, strange? Neither of them said anything to you calling him her boyfriend, Lil."

Daisy released Misty from her death-grip and instead took a hold of her face, looking in her eyes. "Like, ohmigod!" Daisy exclaimed. "You guys are dating again?"

Unable to nod herself, Ash nodded sheepishly for the both of them.

"Well, then come on in here, little bro!"

And then Ash and Misty were being smashed in between three squealing Waterflower sisters, who were going on about weddings and rings and babies while Ash and Misty both wore very heavy blushes, reluctant to look each other in the eyes.

"Oh, guys, hold up," Lily said, moving back from the hug circle. "I think we're, like, embarrassing them."

"You're right; they're blushing!"

"Oh, how cute!"

"Get off of us!" Misty finally cried, prying herself and Ash away from her sisters.

Then, from upstairs, they heard a very loud shouting match that sounded for all the world like they were shouting "Did not!" and "Did too!" at each other.

After it stopped, Misty said, "That's Alyssa and her friend Noah."

"Oh," Daisy said, laughing. "There for a sec, I thought that it was clones of the two of you!"

Misty looked defiantly at her sister. "Daisy, I think that both Ash as well as I have matured past that point."

Ash snorted. "Oh, yeah?" he challenged.

"Yeah!"

"Yeah?"

"YEAH!"

"Alright," Violet said, stepping between them. "Break it up, break it up."

"Gosh, you'd think now that they're dating they would have gotten rid of all that sexual tension," Lily said matter-of-factly. "You need to step it up, Ash."

Both teens turned scarlet and turned away to tend to their Pokémon, swearing _not_ to talk to Lily ever again.

* * *

**A/N:** Another short chapter. The next one is quite a bit longer, don't you worry. I actually added a last minute scene, the one recommended by my beta, just to add some length to this one. Tell me what you think of everything!

So my roommate is already sick. Fingers crossed that she won't give it to me. I don't wanna get sick!


	9. Before the Storm

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Thank you to the ever-lovely C'sMelody for beta-ing this too many times to count and to all of my lovely reviewers, followers, and favoriters. You're all the best!

* * *

**…Before the Storm**

"Starmie, use Rapid Spin!"

Starmie sliced through the air, spinning so fast it was nothing but a blur, and rammed right into the opponent's Exeggutor, knocking the Pokémon off its platform and into the water.

"Exeggutor, use Psybeam!"

Since the large, bipedal Pokémon didn't have arms, it was all it could do to try its best to tread water and keep upright, much less attack. Its eyes glowed slightly, attempting to do so, but it couldn't seem to manage to fire.

This kid obviously had some experience under his belt, but Misty smirked subtly, seeing the barely-contained panic in his eyes. It shouldn't be long now. "Starmie, Thunder."

Starmie effortlessly hopped up onto a platform and began spinning in place, an electric spark forming at the top of its uppermost spine. It suddenly released the charge into the middle of the pool, crisping the soaking wet Exeggutor. Its eyes became crossed and it suddenly seized, no longer making any effort to swim and floated on its side in the pool, sparking slightly with the current.

"Exeggutor is unable to battle, Misty, the Cerulean City Gym Leader is the winner!" Daisy called perkily with the sweep of her flag.

Misty grinned, wanting nothing more than to leap onto her Starmie's platform and give it a big hug. But one look at her challenger's face told her that that kid needed an easy let-down, if not a full-blown pep talk. She recalled Starmie into its 'Ball with the promise of giving it a treat later and headed over to the other side of the pool.

"Great Battle," Misty said, extending her hand and smiling warmly.

The kid looked very downtrodden but he shook Misty's hand anyway, trying not to look too disappointed. "Thank you, Misty."

"Now, just train a little harder and I will be happy to battle you—"

"Is that Ash Ketchum, the Pokémon Master‽"

Suddenly the boy's eyes lit up and he acted as though Misty wasn't even there anymore. His vision was glued to the raven-haired boy who was approaching them. "Nice Battle, Mist."

"It's really you!" You could see the sparkles in the boy's eyes as he looked up at Ash as though he were a god among men.

"Yeah, it's me, the Pokémon Master," Ash said with a less-than humble grin on his face.

"You can tell from his big head," Misty sniggered.

"Take that back!"

The boy sweat-dropped. "Could I have your autograph?" he asked timidly.

Abruptly Ash's demeanor changed, always loving being the center of attention, and he said, "Sure, anything for my fans."

"Yeah, since he's the only one."

Ash just smiled at the boy as he took out a piece of paper. "Ignore her."

The boy got his autograph and left, holding the piece of paper close to his chest as he went.

"Now was all that completely necessary?"

Misty just grinned mischievously. "Well, someone has to keep you in check. And what better person to let you know that you're not the greatest there ever was than your ever-loving girlfriend?"

She leaned over and gave him a peck on the cheek, making him roll his eyes at her.

"Yeah, yeah. Anyway, I actually came in here to tell you that I need some more rigorous training. I just need to get out of the Gym. So I'm going to head over to the cave and I probably won't be back until tomorrow," Ash informed her, looking apologetic.

"Aw, you're leaving me alone with my sisters? You can't do that to me!"

Ash faltered, almost looking as though he was going to back down and agree to stay. Misty cut him off before he had the chance.

"I'm kidding! Don't worry about it, Ash. I don't mind if you need to get out periodically, as long as you come back home." She kissed him again, this time on the lips, and saw him and Pikachu off.

"Wow, a full day without Ash, what ever shall you do?" Alyssa teased Misty.

Mew, even when they were dating everyone always teased her about him.

Misty and Alyssa were out eating dinner together. Alyssa had asked her where Ash was, since when she wasn't out with Ash herself, the two of them were usually tied at the hip. Misty told her cousin that Ash was training, and she could have sworn that she saw a shadow appear on her face before Alyssa quickly covered it up and suggested that they go out the dinner, just the two of them. Misty agreed, since they hadn't really gotten to know each other particularly well when she first arrived, it seemed like a good opportunity to do so.

So, the two of them headed off to an early dinner. Misty had suggested eating early so that she could properly procrastinate on her paperwork. And so that her sisters could handle the last few challengers. Maybe that would allow some of them to actually win.

Clearly, Ash's smugness was rubbing off on her.

So far the dinner was going really well. Even though they had been living together for a few weeks, Misty didn't realize how much she had in common with Alyssa. She knew that they both loved Water Pokémon, but it turned out that Alyssa didn't like carrots either and she loved the romantic movies that Misty adored but Ash never wanted to watch with her. After that revelation, they decided to watch a chick flick when they returned to the Gym.

"Oh Misty, you have a bit of sauce on your cheek."

Not exactly being one of refined manners, Misty immediately stuck her tongue out and tried to lick the sauce away. Perhaps it wasn't the most classy of actions, but it's not like Misty had gained proper etiquette education while on the road with Ash and Brock.

Alyssa rolled her eyes. "Here, I'll get it."

"No, I've got it."

Misty reached for her napkin and dabbed at her cheek, but she saw a flash of pink in Alyssa's hand and froze. In Alyssa's hand was a silken pink handkerchief with a golden sun embroidered on it.

"What's that?" Misty asked, her voice ice cold.

Alyssa's eyes widened, as though realizing she had made a mistake. She immediately pulled the handkerchief back toward her, trying to shield it from Misty's piercing eyes.

"M-My mom gave it to me," she stammered. "It belonged to my dad."

Misty was having none of it. "Oh really? So that isn't the handkerchief that I spent months embroidering and gave to Ash? That he then gave to you because you're so important to him?"

"Please," Alyssa whimpered, "it's the last thing I have of him."

She felt like she could throw up. She honestly did. Her stomach was twisting and she felt a horrible mixture of rage and numbness all at the same time. How could she have been so stupid?

"I knew it!" Misty raged. "I knew that he liked you! That little liar!"

The words just spilled out of her with reckless abandon. She felt blinded by rage and didn't know what she was saying, only that she needed to yell at this girl. It was a good thing that they were eating outside, because at that point, Misty was shrieking and Alyssa had tears welling in her eyes.

"Please stop…"

"Never talk to me again!" Misty yelled. She stood up abruptly and left the table, leaving Alyssa sitting there with beaded tear drops raining down on the sun in her lap.

She wandered the streets of Cerulean completely frazzled. She had seen her mother angry many times, but never like that and never at her. Her mother was known for having a fiery attitude, it was actually a family joke, but to her daughter she was nothing but loving. To have her mother yelling at her like that and not even care was the most terrifying thing she had ever witnessed.

She had destroyed everything. Everything she had worked so hard for. Her parents would split up, she would never be conceived, and her dad would be murdered by the leader of Team Rocket. Her father was going to die. Again. She couldn't let that happen. She couldn't let him die when she had worked so hard. She reached for her 'Belt and fumbled around for her Pokétch. Through blurred eyes she opened her contacts, thanking Mew that Ash was the first one. She clicked on it and with a trembling hand held the device to her ear. All that she could hear was a loud crackling noise before she finally heard a faint voice.

"Hello? Alyssa?"

She felt a sob escape her mouth at her father's voice calling her Alyssa.

"I'm so sorry," she whispered.

"Wha—can't—you—in a cave." His voice kept on blipping in and out.

"Misty thinks that you're in love with me," Ilse choked out, almost hoping that he wouldn't hear her.

"What? Why?"

Ilse completely broke down sobbing, sputtering out words that didn't make sense even if he could hear all of them.

"Alyssa!"

Suddenly the line cut out leaving Ilse with only a dial tone in her ear. Again, she felt a stabbing pain hit her. Now both of her parents hated her. Her mind was racing, she couldn't think straight, but she had to think of a way to get them to not hate each other. There was only one person she could call. Hands still shaking, she scrolled down one name in her contacts and clicked.

"Hello?"

"Brock?"

Misty had left the restaurant so angry that she didn't even know where to go, so she just wandered around until the fury in her became nothing but a dark, dull ache in her heart. She had seen the way Ash had looked at Alyssa. It was the sweetest, most caring look that she had ever seen him wear. He didn't even give that look to his Pokémon, much less her. Maybe the only reason that they were together was because they were each other's first love. But now that Alyssa was here, she was the next new, great thing in his life. She would have to live with that. She would always love Ash, but because of that she should let him be happy, even if it was with her cousin.

She entered the Gym late that night with a defeated feeling burning into her chest. She was surprised when she saw Noah in the front of the Gym with his arms crossed, as if he was waiting for her. Misty tried to walk past him but he sidestepped so that he was right in front of her.

"She messaged me and told me what happened."

Misty sniffed, trying to look unaffected. "Then you should be as mad as I am. Your girlfriend is dating my boyfriend."

Noah looked intensely at her, almost glaring as a stormy expression filled his dark brown eyes. "You need to grow up."

Misty faltered. "What?"

"Can't you see that all she has tried to do this whole time is get the two of you together? Hell, you wouldn't be together right now if it wasn't for her. She cares about you and you can't even see it because you're so jealous!" His words were biting with petulance and repressed frustration, though he still held his composure.

Misty shook her head, the sadness creeping up. "You don't understand."

"No, _you_ don't understand." Noah said it so strongly that Misty didn't want to refute it.

He walked away. Misty was left standing there, feeling smaller than a child as she watched him walk away. She must have been standing there for five minutes before her sisters showed up.

"Little sister, what's that matter?" Lily asked.

Misty shook herself out of it. "Nothing. I guess I just spaced out."

Daisy laughed. "Haha, like, you're supposed to be the one in the family that doesn't do that. Anyway, we're gonna go out tonight. See you later, sis!"

They all laughed jovially, leaving Misty with the empty echo reverberating through her bones.

He didn't know why he was coming. Alyssa had called him in such hysterics that he could only hear every other word, but he gathered that something big had happened between Ash and Misty and she needed help. And when it came to those two, he would do anything. So he hopped on his Crobat and headed towards Cerulean City at top speed.

Within a few minutes, Brock found himself looming in on the Gym and he saw a small figure standing outside of it. Alyssa. He swooped down and landed right beside her.

As soon as Brock stepped off of his Crobat and returned it into its 'Ball, Alyssa rushed over to him and wrapped her arms around him in a hug. Caught off-guard, Brock awkwardly patted her on the back before ultimately grabbing her shoulders and peeling himself out of the embrace. He took in her panicked expression and sighed. This girl obviously wasn't any better at handling emotions than her cousin.

"Hey, kid. Breathe," Brock said soothingly, his motherly instincts coming out.

Alyssa did so and fully pulled away from Brock. She nodded to show that she was okay.

"Now tell me again exactly what happened."

It seemed that since the phone call Alyssa had managed to calm herself down a little. Now that she was actually breathing, she managed to recount everything that Misty said at the restaurant.

"Wow," Brock said, running his hand through his hair exasperatedly. "A full-on Misty attack. No wonder you couldn't talk."

"No kidding," she said, half-heartedly trying to laugh.

"Hey, out of curiosity, why did you have the handkerchief?" Brock asked. "It couldn't have really belonged to your dad, right?"

Alyssa shuffled, looking at the ground. "Actually, it did," she mumbled.

Brock couldn't hide the shocked expression on his face. "What?"

Alyssa looked at Brock, her eyes wide and earnest. "Ash and Misty are my parents."

And then his face went totally blank. He blinked once. "What?"

"No, it's the truth, just listen," Alyssa pleaded. "Look at my hair; it's just like Ash's. My eyes are the same as Misty's. Just look at me! You know it's true!" Brock was still showing a completely alarmed expression on his face, but Alyssa barreled on, knowing that she couldn't stop now. "Ash dies in the future because of something that happens now and I'm trying to stop it. I traveled back in time using Celebi's power. Ask Noah, he'll tell you."

"O-Okay," Brock said hesitantly.

"I know that this is really overwhelming, but it turns out that I'm probably supposed to be conceived in a couple days," Brock's eyes went wild, "so I _have_ to keep them together. And you can't tell them about this either. Please, I beg of you, I need your help. I don't think that Misty will listen to me."

Alyssa held a terrified expression on her face. She looked as though the world was collapsing around her and she was fumbling for any sort of a lifeline. But Brock kind of felt like he was drowning too, along with her. She had just pelted him with a hurricane of information that he had to wade through.

"Alright." He squeezed his eyes shut and put his fingers to his temples. "We actually met Celebi, so I know its ability," he started slowly, working through every idea one at a time. He then opened his eyes and looked at Alyssa. They all had thought that she looked shockingly like Misty, but now he saw little glimpses of Ash. He remembered all kinds of things that she did that were vaguely Ash-like. It scared him to see the resemblance.

Alyssa saw a flicker of a change in his expression. She looked hopeful. "Do you believe me?"

Brock took a deep breath. "I don't know. But I know I believe that you really want Ash and Misty together and that we need to fix it. So let's just worry about that."

Alyssa smiled, but her eyes still looked sad. "Okay."

Brock agreed with Alyssa that it would be best if she laid low for the next hour or so. That way, he could lay down the groundwork. Additionally, it was freaking him out to look at her any longer, so he figured he might as well kill two Pidgey with one stone.

He walked into the Gym with the intent of finding Misty and setting her straight, but the fact that he was still feeling completely unsettled by everything Alyssa had told him was slowing him down. He was way too unsettled to be able to carry on any sort of a serious conversation with her—he'd probably just end up staring at her face the whole time.

So instead he wandered through the many corridors of the Gym, trying to work through his thoughts. He always knew that Ash and Misty would end up married, maybe have a kid or two, though he wasn't even sure about that. Ash was more of a free spirit that didn't want to be tied down, but he also loved family. It was a tossup. But if they did actually have kids, he didn't imagine seeing it for years and years to come. Seeing her in the flesh right in front of them as she prophesized Ash's death was just too much.

There was only one person that he could go to in order to clear his thoughts.

He hadn't even been thinking about it, but somehow he ended up standing in front of a door, his feet no longer dragging him aimlessly through the Gym. Why not? He knocked on the door.

"Why would you knock on the door to your own room?" Brock heard muffled through the door.

It opened to reveal a surprised Noah, his eyebrows raised so high they got lost in his messy bangs.

"Mr. Sl—Brock?"

Hearing his slip, Brock blanched. That half a second was enough to give him his proof. "So it's true," he murmured. He almost hadn't wanted to believe it. It would have been easier to just think that Alyssa was crazy, but then again, in this world anything was possible.

Nodding slowly in understanding, Noah opened the door wider. "Come in."

Brock walked in and collapsed onto the bed and Noah closed the door, leaning against it.

"So, she told you."

Brock nodded, putting his face in his hands.

"How much did she tell you?"

Brock sighed and mumbled into his hands, "She told me that she's Ash and Misty's daughter from the future and she's here to make sure that he doesn't die and she gets born." He looked up. "Man this is twisted. So can I presume you're from the future too?"

Noah nodded.

"So, um," Brock started, "how does Ash die?"

Noah just stood there silently and staring off at the wall to the point that Brock thought maybe he hadn't heard the question.

"I don't think that I should be the one to answer those types of questions," Noah said slowly. "And hopefully it won't matter. So, there's no reason I should tell you."

"Well, why did she tell me what she told me if I shouldn't know?" Brock asked exasperatedly.

"Look," Noah said, finally walking towards him, "it wasn't my idea to mess with the past. I'm just here because Ilse isn't always as strong as she makes herself out to be and I didn't want her getting in over her head. I'm sure you're familiar with that."

"Ilse? Her name is Ilse?"

Noah pursed his lips. "Uh, well I guess you can know that."

"So what exactly is it that you need me to do now that I know all of this?" Brock asked.

"Well first you need to talk some sense into Misty. Do whatever you can to keep her and Ash from breaking up. And then…" Noah paused, "something's going to happen. You'll know when it does and things are gonna get ugly. We'll come to you if we need you to help us."

Brock eyed him curiously. "What's going to happen?"

Noah threw him a dry look.

Brock got up and started moving towards the door. "Right, right—can't know. Alright, I'll see what I can do."

"Brock."

Brock turned back to look at Noah.

"Thank you. You don't know it now, but you're really important to Ilse—like a third parent. It'll mean a lot to her that you believe her."

Brock smiled, though it was slightly strained. "No problem." And he left.

Being alone outside wandering around with nowhere to go was starting to get to her. She took out her Pokémon and exercised them a bit, but aside from that she was just too stressed to occupy herself much.

She circled town and found herself in front of the Gym again, right where she had started, only now it was dark out. Suddenly she saw Ash rushing towards her with Pikachu on his shoulder.

"What did you tell Misty?" Ash bit accusingly.

Immediately she felt under attack again and cowered. Any calmness she had felt after talking to Brock and after spending time with her Pokémon just withered away. Ilse Ketchum was never one to be unable to stand up for herself, but she already had one parent yell at her today—she wasn't emotionally prepared for it to happen a second time.

"Please, Ash, I didn't tell her anything," Ilse said desperately. "She just saw that I had a handkerchief that looked exactly like the one that she gave you and she thought that it meant something."

Ash's gaze was still shooting daggers through her.

"I didn't mean for it to happen," she whimpered.

Pikachu chattered into Ash's ear and his expression softened slightly, though he still looked frazzled. He worked his fingers through his disheveled hair. "Fine, whatever, you're not the one I need to talk to. I need to find my girlfriend."

And he brushed right past her, leaving Ilse alone outside the Gym once again.

"Please…" Ilse whispered to his retreating form. But, of course, he didn't hear her, and it pained Ilse to think that even if he had, he wouldn't have stopped for her.

She felt the tears coming again and she didn't want to deal with them again. But they were already burning the backs of her eyelids and she felt powerless to do much of anything. Weakly, she lifted up her Pokétch and sent a quick message. She then worked her way over to a bench and just crumbled into it, burying her face in her hands.

Not a minute later, she felt a presence beside her and saw something sit down beside her on the bench out of the corner of her eye. It wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. She let out a shuddering breath and allowed herself to relax into it.

"Thank you, Noah," she breathed.

She felt him begin to rub his hand on her back. "No problem."

For a minute the two of them just sat like that, Ilse trying to regulate her breathing and Noah rubbing her back and smoothing her hair.

"Noah?"

"Hmm?"

"I feel really alone right now."

At that Noah pulled back, leaving only her hand in his as a physical connection. He was looking at her intensely. "You've never been alone, Ilse."

She knew he wasn't talking about himself there. He was talking about Ash and Misty. In their world, it was rare for kids to have both of their parents see them grow up. The world was dangerous, so people died young or parents would see their kids as self-sufficient at some point and leave them in favor of going on their own journey.

Ilse felt a wave of guilt stab her chest.

Noah's mom had died when he was young, before he even went off on his journey, and he had never met his dad. All he had of him was a picture his mother had given him when he was a baby. He'd never even let Ilse see it. All his mother had ever told him about his father was that he was a member of Team Rocket, but that despite that he had a good heart. She had always told him that he had that same heart.

Ilse didn't know any more than that because whenever she asked him about it he'd freeze and refuse to talk about it.

"I'm sorry," she said guiltily. Here she had been running around because one of her parents had died and Noah didn't have either to speak of.

Despite all that, Noah gave her a genuine smile. "It's alright. You learn to find family in other places."

"Am I your family?"

Noah just wrapped an arm around her and helped her off the bench.

It was time to see what _their _family had gotten themselves into.

Misty was sitting alone at the bar in her kitchen with not so much as the lights on as company. She was swirling a glass in her hand, watching the liquid become like a whirlpool before taking the occasional sip.

"You know, I don't think I've seen you drink nearly as much as you have since this girl arrived," Brock said as he sidled up next to Misty in the kitchen.

"What are you doing here, Brock?" Misty asked disinterestedly.

"Let's just say that I have my sources and I heard about you and Alyssa," Brock said mysteriously.

Misty finished her drink. "You can't talk me out of it this time," Misty said resignedly. "You haven't seen the way he looks at her."

Brock sighed. "I don't care how he looks at her, I've seen the way he looks at you. Misty, it's always been you."

"Brock, she had the handkerchief!" Misty exclaimed. "That's the first thing that I ever gave to him—what business does she have having it?"

"Misty!"

Suddenly, Ash ran into the room, a look of relief on his face when he saw Misty.

Misty wasn't nearly as happy, though. "How could you?" she asked, abruptly standing up, swaying a little on her feet.

"Misty, whatever you think I did, I didn't do it," Ash tried to explain.

"I saw what I saw!"

"No you didn't," Brock interjected calmly. "Misty it's not what you think."

Misty wasn't listening, though. "Why would you hang out with her almost every day if you weren't getting a little on the side, huh?"

Brock couldn't help but grimace at the thought. "Okay, let's not—"

"I'm not like that and you know it!" Ash yelled back.

Just then Ilse and Noah came in.

"You!" Misty growled, looking at Ilse as though she wanted her head on a platter. Which she very well might have. "Get out of my house."

"Misty, calm down," Noah tried.

Misty turned her attention to Noah. "I want you out too."

Brock reeled her in. "Misty, that's really not necessary."

"Just listen to us!"

"It's just a misunderstanding!"

The whole room was filled with the cacophony of shouting voices. No one could hear anything anyone was saying over the volume of their own straining voice. Right then, Pikachu came scampering in the room and began pointing frantically to the television in the den, opposite the kitchen. But no one noticed the little mouse.

"Pika-CHUU!"

Everyone sizzled with electricity as Pikachu unleashed a Thundershock on the whole group. Abruptly, their conversation halted and Ash got up and walked over to Pikachu.

"What is it, buddy? We're kind of in the middle of something."

Pikachu pointed back to the screen and led the whole group over, using his paw to flip on the power button. The news came on and a familiar face filled the screen.

"Shit," Ash breathed as he read the headline.

Misty slowly walked up behind Ash and stared at the screen as well, reaching for his arm to hold on to. "Oh my goodness," she whispered before falling quiet to listen to the newscast.

_"…It appears that a secret group was sent out by the military to end once and for all the horrors caused by the terrorist group Team Rocket. Leading the team was Ritchie Hiroshi. At this point, the entire group has been found dead…"_

Pikachu reached for the power button again, turning the screen to black. Ash's face turned stony, and Misty began sniffling, obviously trying to hold back tears. Ash shifted slightly, pulling her against him as she crumpled into his chest without once taking his dark eyes off the screen.

* * *

**A/N: **Oh no, I killed somebody else off! Sorry guys, but he wasn't going to play a role in this story no matter what. Anyway, this is essentially the end of Act I, if you will, and now we're on the act 2, which, as far as I can tell, will be 8 chapters and then an 'epilogue' of sorts. We're approaching the action part of this story! Hope you're excited! Tell me if you like this chapter or if you thought it was too jumpy with too much dialogue. Give me all of your opinions!

My back is killing me today and I have no idea why. But I'm off to 8:30am ballet in 45 minutes so...yay me. Yay college.


	10. Troubled Waters

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Hey, so this is essentially the beginning of Act II! Don't worry, this is only a two act story. As always, thank you to my reviewers and extra special, old-style McDonalds Supersize thank you to my beta C'sMelody!

* * *

**Chapter Ten: Troubled Waters**

The room felt haunted.

Ash was sitting on the couch, stroking Pikachu robotically and looking out into space. Misty was sitting on the barstool not facing anyone else, her foot bouncing rapidly up and down as she clenched and unclenched her fist against her cheek. Brock was busying himself in the kitchen, cleaning every dish in sight whether it was dirty or not.

Meanwhile, Ilse and Noah stood awkwardly at the side, surveying the scene and exchanging concerned glances. There was no sound besides the faucet running and everyone was moving mechanically—the same actions at the same intervals while the rest of their bodies stayed still. They were like the mechanical children in haunted houses. It was spooky.

At first, the three of them had been visible wrecks. Ash and Misty clung on to each other even though the shouts from their argument still echoed through the room. Brock had immediately thrown a look to Noah, asking if this is what he had been talking about. He gave an almost imperceptible nod of his head and Brock nodded back, his expression grave and almost a little hurt.

Feeling as though it was too early to break the silence, Ilse mouthed to Noah, "You told him?"

Noah rotated his hand back and forth as though to say, "Kinda."

At that point, Ilse started mouthing a lot of words really quickly and her gesticulations began to become wild. Not being able to grasp anything she was trying to get across, Noah grabbed her hands to silence her and pointed back at the scene in front of him.

Ash and Misty jumped apart, blushing slightly as though they finally remembered that they were supposed to be fighting. That's when they retreated to opposite sides of the room to think through what they had just witnessed.

It had now been almost ten minutes of the same. Ilse saw a few tears welling in her mother's eyes and it instantly brought her back to when Officer Jenny told them that her father was dead. She felt herself breaking even further for a moment before she felt her resolve harden. She knew this was going to happen and now it was time for the real mission to start. She walked farther into the room.

"I'm sorry for your loss," Ilse said solemnly, just loud enough for everyone to hear but not loud enough to disturb completely the sadness that shrouded the room.

Neither Ash nor Misty acknowledged that she said anything or that anything in the room had changed. Brock, on the other hand, paused his obsessive dish cleaning, and looked at Ilse. He left a wet dish in the sink and walked over to her.

"I guess we should tell you what's going on," he said, though a knowing look filled his cold eyes. "What they were talking about on the news…it's something that's been going on in Kanto for a while, Team Rocket crimes that is. I guess a group of people were sent out to finish Team Rocket…The leader of that group, Ritchie, was a good friend of ours."

"Oh," Ilse said softly, trying to keep up the act of someone who had no idea what he was talking about, even though they both knew that she did. She knew more what he was talking about than he did. That fact filled her with guilt.

But at this point Ash and Misty had turned towards the source of the noise, their eyes still empty. So Brock did his best to keep up the charade, though he was clearly struggling with the emotional overload. However, it was clear that everyone in the room found the voices at least somewhat comforting, as opposed to the suffocating silence from a moment ago.

Still, she sensed that she wasn't going to get anything out of her parents right now. And it was paining her to see them so sad—that's what she had put so much effort in trying to escape from. Besides, she had to regroup.

"I think that we'll leave the three of you alone for the time being. We'll be in my room"

She grabbed Noah's arm and moved towards the stairs, comforted slightly by the fact that her mother hadn't reintroduced the idea of her being kicked out of the house. Before they made it too far though, Brock spoke up.

"I'll join you guys."

Everyone threw him a confused look, but no one questioned it.

"Alright," Ilse said, continuing the path to her room. "C'mon, Brock."

"Okay, what the hell was that?" Brock almost yelled as soon as the three of them entered Ilse's room. Noah had to hurry to shut the door behind them so that his voice wouldn't carry.

"Jeez, keep it together, would you?"

"What do you mean?" Ilse asked Brock tiredly, too emotionally drained to be dealing with her uncle's outbursts.

"What do I mean?" Brock asked, now making a slightly greater event to muffle his voice. "I mean a little heads up would have been fantastic!"

Noah rolled his eyes. "I did give you a little heads up."

"A little more than that," Brock said dryly.

Noah threw his arms up in the air, as though giving up. He looked to Ilse.

"Okay Brock, calm down," she said, trying to channel the motherly guidance he had fed her not an hour prior. "You're in clear emotional distress right now and you shouldn't take it out on us. You understand why we can't tell you everything we know. Things could end up going totally differently just because of what we've already meddled in." Ilse then turned to Noah. "Speaking of which, how much did you tell him?"

"Almost nothing," Noah said defensively. He recounted everything that he and Brock had discussed interspersed with Ilse giving tiny nods.

"Well, I guess that will have to be okay. Yes, my name is Ilse, don't be surprised when my parents name me that."

"I have a question," Brock asked. He had been sitting silently for a few minutes while Noah and Ilse hashed everything out. They then turned their attention back to him. "If you went to all this trouble of going back in time, getting your parents together, keeping your parents together, and then trying to keep your dad from being killed in the future," he said that last one with his brows furrowed in confusion, "then why didn't you just skip ahead to that moment?"

Ilse sighed. "It's very complicated. It's impossible to tell exactly when, where, or how my father ended up being…you know…so I can't just go there—his assailant had the complete element of surprise. This was the only logical solution."

"Well, logical is kind of pushing it," Noah interjected.

Ilse thwacked him on the head.

Brock smiled. "You guys are just like Ash and Misty."

They both blushed. "No we're not," they said in unison.

"Sure you're not," he said, giving them a smug look. "Anyway, what happens next?"

Ilse pulled Noah away from Brock so that she could speak just to him. "How much should we tell him?" she whispered.

"I think we need to tell him the whole story that he told you."

Ilse threw him a withering look.

"I mean it," Noah insisted. "The more he knows the more useful he will be to us. He can help us manipulate your parents, otherwise we'll just have to manipulate him too."

Sighing, Ilse agreed. She hated it when he was right.

Well, actually, she just hated being wrong. She blamed her parents for that.

The two of them turned back to Brock and told him the whole story of the Rocket takedown and how that led to her father's subsequent death. Noah had to take over a couple parts in which Ilse got too tearful.

"Wow, that's heavy," was what Brock said when they ended the tale. "Ash almost died right after the takedown?"

Ilse nodded somberly. "The Masked Man almost killed him right there, but then I guess he decided that it would be easier to take him out in the future when he had surprise on his side and was no longer outnumbered."

"Or he's just a really sick man who thought revenge would be even sweeter after Ash had a family to leave behind," Noah added bitterly.

He held his head in his hands. "Ugh, this is just too much."

"Brock," Ilse said in a serious tone. "What we need your help with is getting Ash and Misty to allow us to come with you guys. There's not a doubt in my mind that Ash will make the same decision to go just like he did last time; we just need to wait for that to happen."

And wait they did.

The whole rest of the evening was spent in relative silence. Misty's sisters had made an effort to try to cheer her up, but nothing they did made any impact. She just locked herself in her office to catch up on paperwork.

Ash, on the other hand, left the Gym entirely and went on a stroll, just him and Pikachu. He even left his 'Belt.

Meanwhile, Brock took care of all the menial tasks. He scrubbed, he washed, he vacuumed, he dusted—everything that he could do around the house, he did. He was doing better than Ash and Misty were, but only slightly, given that he had more on his mind. Everything Noah and Ilse had told him ran through his head on loop unrelentingly. He honestly had no idea how Ilse had kept up such a normal façade this whole time. Even after only just learning this secret, he felt like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. But he knew that he thought the best when he cleaned, so he covered every inch of that Gym until it was sparkling.

A couple of hours passed like that and then it grew late. Nobody really seemed up to facing the waking world, so everyone went to sleep relatively early.

Ilse had kind of been hoping that her father would have his big idea today—she just wanted to get on with it. She had inherited his gene of complete and utter impatience and it was driving her crazy. She almost wanted just to gather everyone into the room and have the idea herself. So much so that she introduced that idea to Noah, but he quickly called her crazy and told her just to go to sleep.

The next morning, she woke up desperately wishing to talk to her dad. Of course, she really wanted to talk to him about Team Rocket, but she probably would have settled for anything. But she felt that her speaking to either of her parents wouldn't be taken too well, considering the way things had been left the night before.

She and Noah went downstairs for breakfast, hoping that some semblance of normalcy had returned, but everyone was sitting silently. Brock had made pancakes, probably in a vain attempt to lift everyone's spirits, but it obviously wasn't working.

But, despite their grief, everyone managed to put away a few helpings of pancakes without batting an eye.

Ash had moved on to what appeared to be his third plate of pancakes, Misty went over to the sink to wash her dishes, Brock flipped the last of the pancakes, and Ilse and Noah happily helped themselves to two heaping plates full. Aside from the silence, everything had a nice familiar rhythm to it until Ash all of a sudden stopped eating, a pensive look now on his face. Misty and Brock turned to look at him strangely while he just stared down at a point on the counter.

"That's strange," Misty mused, breaking the silence.

Brock nodded in agreement as Noah turned to look at Ash, a look of confusion on his face. "What is?"

"Well, just look," Brock said, gesturing to Ash. "He has a perfectly cut mouthful of pancake on his fork, and yet he's not shoveling it into his mouth. It would be as strange as a heroin addict going through withdrawal having a full needle in his hand and then just setting it aside. It just doesn't happen."

"You know a surprising amount about illegal, intravenous drug use, Brock," Misty said teasingly, finally starting to sound the slightest bit like her normal self.

Suddenly, Ash brought his fist down on the counter and his head popped up, eyes now comically wide. He turned to address his startled friends and said, "We have to disband Team Rocket. Now."

* * *

**A/N: **Alright, I admit it. This is kinda a filler chapter, leading to a reveal that you would have to be an idiot not to see coming. Unless you thought I was trying to trick you. Sorry, not creative enough for that. Well, I hope you liked it anyway. It just means that we're moving into the good stuff soon!

I always feel a compulsion to give a little blurb about what's happening in my personal life because I myself like reading about other people's personal lives. So this is for the people that are creepy like me! Because I'm a square, I went to my very first real party this weekend! Yes, I'm a freshman in college and I've put it off this long. No, I didn't drink. I can't help it that I'm a square. It was an...interesting experience, shall we say. Not bad, though. Just interesting.


	11. Making Waves

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Thank you to my lovely reviewers and my one-of-a-kind-most-fantastic-beta-ever C'sMelody!

* * *

**Making Waves**

Glory, hallelujah, praise almighty Arceus!

Ilse did her best to look surprised instead of giddy, but she did glance over to Brock so he could see the excitement radiating forth in her eyes.

Sure, they hadn't been waiting that long, but she had almost begun to lose hope. Maybe she had messed with the past so much that she should be worried that she had changed too much, but she could always count on her father to pull through for her. At the very least, she could always count on him to try to save the world.

After a long period of silence Misty finally said, "What? Ash, are you crazy?"

"No, I'm not," Ash replied in a calm reasonable tone, which surprised everyone. "If anyone can do it, we can."

"Hold on. What's with all this 'we' business?" Misty asked, arching her eyebrow.

Ash shrugged his shoulders and looked earnestly at Misty. "We're a team."

He said it honestly and straightforwardly so there was no room for argument. As though it weren't the very thing that they had been arguing about not twenty-four hours prior. Ash and Misty held each other's strong gaze steadily, almost daring the other to say something on the matter.

Misty finally opened her mouth but instead of arguing, she simply said, "Could you guys give us a moment, please?"

Ilse, Noah, and Brock all exchanged glances, shrugged their shoulders and left the kitchen without a word, abandoning ship before the storm came and it capsized.

* * *

Ilse was standing flat against the wall on the other side of the kitchen, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation going on in there. Noah and Brock had both started up the stairs, but Ilse halted as soon as she was out of sight of Misty and Ash. The two boys sat stooped on the stairs, Noah resting his chin in his hand and looking bored while Brock just sat stoically.

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, a fight seemed to be going back and forth between Ash and Misty. However this one was much calmer than the one from the night before. Ilse decided to take this as a good thing, but it was also something she wasn't particularly appreciative of, as it made them very hard to hear. They had actually been silent for a good many minutes, so Ilse almost didn't even notice when they started talking. Fortunately, Misty's voice tended to get rather loud and shrill when arguing, so Ilse did manage to make out the occasional phrase or two.

Misty seemed to be trying to shoot down his plan before he even got a chance to come up with it. A part of Ilse was praying that Misty would get through to him and save her from having to go through with her own plan. But what would it mean for this world if Team Rocket continued its atrocities? She shuddered at the thought.

Ilse turned back to the conversation at hand, cupping her ear against the wall, so that maybe she would be able to make out more of what they were saying. Misty's voice too had disappeared, which Ilse knew wasn't good. Ilse had only ever heard her mother's voice be low and dangerous when she did something really bad—it was a voice she learned to fear.

Desperate to hear what had caused Misty's voice to go that low, Ilse fiddled with her PokéBelt, which she had on her even though it was first thing in the morning, and felt around for a certain 'Ball. Clutching it victoriously, Ilse enlarged it and aimed it up the stairs so that there was no chance that Ash and Misty would notice the sudden beam of energy. A round, blue, bipedal Pokémon with large, rabbit-like ears took shape. It opened its mouth to call its name, but Ilse hurriedly put her lips to her mouth and shushed it before it got a chance.

"Azumarill, come down the stairs, but be absolutely silent. I need to hear what's going on in the kitchen."

The Water Type hopped down the stairs, landing next to Ilse, pushing its long ears against the wall, twitching slightly at the voices it picked up. It quickly gained a confused look on its face and looked up questioningly at Ilse.

"Yes, it's my parents. Now just listen!"

Despite having called out the Pokémon, Ilse still wanted to hear everything she could for herself, so she continued to cup her ear against the wall.

"…just like before…can't have you risking…over."

"…Ritchie…Team Rocket…have to…need you…"

"…Fine."

Ilse strained her ears but couldn't hear any more voices. Suddenly Azumarill pulled away from the wall and started jumping around, a worried expression on its face. But she had told it not to talk, so it wasn't saying anything.

Then she heard what Azumarill heard. Footsteps.

Hurriedly, Ilse pulled out Azumarill's PokéBall again and recalled the Pokémon, praying that Ash and Misty wouldn't notice the bright flash of light.

As soon as Ilse pocketed the 'Ball, Ash and Misty rounded the corner, their faces exposing no emotion. Misty was the first to speak. "If you're in," she said looking at Brock, "we're going to take on Team Rocket." She finished with a triumphant smile on her face.

But she didn't sound happy about it.

* * *

What? What did that mean?

As much as she really, really, _really_ wanted to be in the room with Ash, Misty, and Brock as they worked on a plan to disband Team Rocket, Ilse even more strongly wanted to hear what exactly she had missed in Ash and Misty's conversation.

She _needed_ to figure it out.

She had quickly excused herself, leaving a confused Noah with the instructions to keep eavesdropping, and headed to her room.

She released Azumarill as soon as she closed the door. As Azumarill recounted verbatim everything that the two of them had said, horror filled her face. Ilse returned Azumarill as soon as it was done, feeling a thousand pounds heavier. She trudged towards Noah, who was still studiously eavesdropping, and stopped right next to him.

"They broke up."

* * *

Ash sat silently in the kitchen waiting for Misty to speak. After all, she had been the one to just kick out Brock, Alyssa, and Noah. He figured she had something she wanted to say. So he waited.

And waited.

He saw in her expression that she was fighting what she wanted to say. That whatever she wanted to tell him was hard for her. That was the only thing that kept him from breaking the silence himself.

"I know why you feel you need to do this, Ash," Misty started slowly. "But you don't always have to be the one to take on the world."

"But Misty," Ash pleaded, "they've been killing people for years now—they killed Ritchie! We've sat around long enough and let other people try to stop them. It's our turn now."

It went back and forth like that for a while. All of Misty's arguments were half-hearted. She told him he was crazy, she told him he was reckless, she told him he didn't know what he was up against. She was grasping at straws and knew that they wouldn't work. None of that had ever been known to stop him before. So finally she said what she really wanted to say.

"You promised," she finally whispered.

"What?" he asked, confused by her change in tone.

"You promised that you were done with the dangerous missions."

"But you'd be with me for this one," Ash argued, not understanding what she was so upset about. "Isn't that what you wanted? To be able to look out for me if I ever did anything like this again?"

Misty sighed. "Yeah, but it feels just like before. I can't have you risking your life when we're already breaking. Maybe this isn't the right time for us." She stopped, the words burning her as she said them. "If we go on this mission, it's over."

Ash's face was hard but his eyes looked hurt. "You know that you can't ask that of me. What about Ritchie? He was one of my best friends. And Team Rocket needs to be stopped! I have to finish this and I need you to help me."

Misty looked at the familiar fire and determination in his eyes. Despite herself, she did agree with everything he was saying. It just hurt so much because he was doing the same thing to her. The same thing she was afraid he would always do. Her biggest fear was that one day down the road they would be married, have a family, and then he would just disappear. She couldn't shake the feeling that that's how it would happen. But even still, she felt the word slip out of her mouth.

"Fine."

* * *

Misty kicked herself. She hated what she was doing to Ash, but she also hated what he was doing to her. It made her feel like she was sixteen all over again.

Back then she had promised herself that she would never stand in the way of Ash's dreams. But then he had gotten hurt. And so she had decided that the best way to not stand in the way of his dreams was to take herself out of them. If doing that would make him happier than just being with her, then that's what she wanted for him. No matter how much it broke her heart. She had to let him do what he wanted to do, even if it meant she wasn't with him.

That wasn't the same as standing in the way of his dream, was it?

She told herself over and over again that she was preserving his dream. That they had been good as friends, so what was the harm in going back to just being friends? And they had been fine. For almost two years they had been great at just being friends.

Then Alyssa had to come around and turn everything upside-down.

It wasn't that she didn't trust Ash. He had never paid any other girl besides her any mind. That's how she knew how much she mattered to him. And she knew that she shouldn't compare herself to other girls, but when you grew up in the shadow of the Sensational Sisters it was hard not to. That's why it made her feel so special that she was the only girl that Ash even looked at.

And she had to admit that she was feeling the slightest twinge of remorse for yelling at Alyssa like that. As much as the girl filled her with these feelings of rage she also filled Misty with something else. An emotion she couldn't place. She felt a connection with this girl that she could not shake. She had dubbed it familial instinct in her mind. She was family after all—they shared blood! Yet it was a different feeling than she felt with her sisters. She just couldn't place it…

But she didn't think about it too much because now that Alyssa was here her confidence with Ash was shaken. Ash had another girl that he loved being around, talking to, and looking at. She had been tempted right then and there to take herself out of the equation. Let her love be happy with the one he loved, even if it wasn't her. But he had been so adamant that that wasn't the case that she almost believed that he didn't see a single thing in her cousin.

Then Ritchie died.

She knew. She _knew_ exactly what Ash was going to do the second the shock had begun to wear off. She knew him well enough to know that the first idea he would jump to was one that included him throwing himself in harm's way in order to possibly save the day. She also knew that there would be no talking him out of it.

In all honesty, she wasn't even sure that she wanted to. She wanted to beat the living daylights out of Team Rocket as much as he did. And it had been forever since she'd gone on an adventure. She was practically aching to go with them so that they could take down the bad guys, just like old times.

But that little sixteen-year-old girl in her kept on reminding her of last time. Ordinarily, Misty would just ignore her younger self. Or at least she'd try. But this time there was a little itch on the back of her neck that told her that this was bad. It could be the worst thing to ever happen. She didn't have any idea why she had that instinct, but she couldn't shake it no matter how much Ash argued that it was the right thing to do.

She couldn't get rid of it, but she could ignore it. Because as much as she didn't want Ash to go in there, she sure as hell wasn't going to let him go without her.

And besides—she wanted to go too.

So she, Ash, and Brock sat in the living room, talking through what needed to happen—what needed to happen before they left, who would be beneficial to bring with them, and so on.

The three of them were currently arguing over whether to add Gary to the group or not. Brock and Misty both thought it was a great idea, but Ash was hesitant at best. He currently had his arms crossed and was frowning like a little boy saying, "I don't wanna." He was practically pouting.

As Misty resisted the urge to laugh, she noticed Alyssa and Noah enter the room. Alyssa had an oddly unsettled look on her face, but Noah looked cool, as usual. Misty wondered for a second if Alyssa was upset about Ritchie's death, even though she didn't know him, before she pushed the thought out of her mind, telling herself that she didn't care.

"What are you guys doing here?" Her voice came out harsh. But if they noticed, they didn't show it.

"We want to go with you."

Misty arched an eyebrow. Even though Alyssa said it like she was asking, there was a firmness in her voice that told Misty that this girl wasn't going to take no for an answer. Still, she felt the need to give it a shot. "Why would you want to go—need I remind you, possibly to your deaths—with us?"

Alyssa looked square at Misty, the scare tactic not fazing her a bit. "Team Rocket is filled with evil scum that need to be destroyed," she said, her voice so cold it almost made Misty shiver. "We can help you do that. I'm a really strong Trainer—Ash can vouch for that. And Noah is an amazing Trainer too. We can only help your cause."

Misty was about to open her mouth to argue some more but Brock spoke up first.

"I think they should come."

Misty turned to him in shock. She didn't know what opinion she expected him to have, but she didn't expect him to jump on board so easily.

"I think so too. Alyssa is one of the strongest Trainers I know," Ash added.

She knew she was fighting a losing battle. But Misty did have one more concern that was not directly related to her personal dislike for Alyssa. "But if we have the two of them, the three of us, May and Drew, Jessie and James, and Gary—"

"Not Gary," Ash interjected.

"Maybe Gary," Misty amended, rolling her eyes. "Then that's ten people. Isn't that too much?"

"Not if some people stay on the outside," Alyssa piped up.

"Why would we need people on the outside?" Misty asked skeptically.

"Trust me, if we want to evacuate and save anyone, we're going to have to have people stay outside the base."

"See? We need them," Brock said over-enthusiastically.

This was just not her day. Once again, she found herself backed into a corner with no other word to say besides: "Fine."

* * *

Thank Mew for Uncle Brock coming to her rescue like always. Ilse sat down across from the others, letting out a breath of relief as she did so.

Ilse had recounted everything that Azumarill had told her to Noah. He had tried to get her to talk further about it but she didn't let him. Getting into the mission plan was more important. So she had him tell her everything that she missed while she was upstairs, which apparently wasn't much. At least nothing crucial. So before they got the chance to get to the vital stuff without her, she barged in, dragging an unsuspecting Noah along with her.

Yes, she was going in without a real plan as to what she could possibly say to convince everyone that she was needed on a mission that they thought she knew nothing about. But then she remembered that she had her Uncle Brock on her side and that she could count on him. Besides, she knew more than they did so she could always use her advantage, well, to her advantage.

Luckily her dad joined her side as well. When she was younger he would always tell her what a talented Trainer she was and it was always amazing to hear. But hearing it from a version of her father that wasn't really him—who wouldn't just be saying those things because he was her father—made her feel so happy.

Then they just had to convince her mom.

Her mom hated her. It pained Ilse to look into her mother's eyes and see the exact level of distain she felt for her burning in her eyes. But there was nothing she could do. She was doing this for her, she just didn't know it.

So what if her mother and father were broken up? Maybe her mother would see that she and Ash didn't have anything together and then she would come to her senses. Or maybe after they took down Team Rocket. Or would that be too late…?

She shook her head; she couldn't let herself dwell on it. She had to get on with the plan.

"So what have you guys figured out so far?" Ilse asked as though Noah hadn't told her a minute earlier.

"Well, we are going to have to tell Misty's sisters so that they can be in charge of the Gym and we'll have to talk to the League because of Ash," Brock supplied. "Then we were just discussing who exactly would be most beneficial to bring along with us. Which we hit a little roadblock on," Brock finished by throwing Ash a look.

"What kind of roadblock?"

This time, surprisingly enough, Misty answered. "Well, we think that Gary Oak should come. I don't know if you've heard of him, but he's Professor Oak's grandson. Because of that he's amazing with Pokémon and technology. He would be perfect to have with us if _someone_," she threw Ash a pointed look, "would get over his little childhood rivalry."

"Look, it's not like we're still enemies!" Ash cried out. "I just don't wanna ask him for help."

"Ah, how you have matured," Misty drawled sarcastically.

Ilse could sense a spat coming on so she quickly jumped in. "Well, unless you know anyone else who is a whiz with technology, I say that we should bring him."

"Alright, Ash," Brock said, a smug look on his face. "You are beyond outvoted now. Get off your high horse and agree that we should bring Gary."

Ash still held his arms crossed and, again, was pouting. But with everyone staring him down, he finally broke. "Fine, we can invite Gary. But I'm not calling him."

Then the team was set. It was just as it had happened in the past, plus Ilse and Noah. The team didn't seem to be a problem before, according to her Uncle Brock's story, so she hoped that those results would be the same this time.

"Anyway," Ash started once the bitterness of inviting his ex-rival wore off, "I have a rough idea for a plan."

And then he went on to describe a plan very much like the one in Brock's retelling. As he described his outline, Ilse could see all the scenes that she had imagined during Brock's story in her mind's eye. She had to consciously even out her breaths to keep from shuddering.

"That sounds like that might work," Misty said slowly as she continued to work the plan through in her mind.

Wrong answer, Mom. Ilse was about to interject when Noah snorted.

Misty turned to him sharply. "Do you have something to say, Noah?"

Ilse was also shooting Noah a particularly nasty look. He was the one who was always saying that they had to be tactful, and he wasn't off to a good start. Besides, she had decided that the only way to get back on her parents' sides was to be nice and sweet to them, especially Misty. He wasn't helping that image.

Noah pointedly ignored the look and instead turned to Ash. "This is a good plan Ash, don't get me wrong, but only in the short term."

Ash cocked his head in confusion. "How so?"

"Well," Noah continued, this time standing up to face the group, "I understand that you don't want to use any more violence than necessary, but how will that accomplish anything? These scumbags will be in jail for a few years and then released with the freedom to reunite and reorganize a new Team Rocket. Crimes for these individual Grunts can't be proven and so they can't be in jail for life. As for taking down the leader…That's definitely going in the right direction, but I think that he needs to be completely eliminated. If we leave any wiggle room in this plan, that's just going to leave a vengeful leader and a whole host of henchmen, all with guns aimed at you," he finished, pointing toward Ash.

Ash gulped. "Guns?" Apparently the idea never crossed his mind.

Noah shrugged offhandedly. "Well, we don't know. We don't even have the slightest clue as to what they're doing on the inside right now. For all we know, when we enter the compound the whole thing could disappear into thin air or explode on contact."

Everyone paused to consider the new information. Ilse had to hand it to Noah. He brought up points that she hadn't even thought of. She would have to thank him later, she thought reluctantly. He had always been good at getting people to agree with him. Namely her.

Finally, Brock said, "See, I told you it would be good to have these two with us." He then turned to Noah. "So what did you have in mind?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Misty interrupted. "What did you mean by 'eliminated'?" she asked, squinting her eyes at Noah. "You want us to kill him?"

"Yes," Ilse exclaimed, standing up suddenly. "This is war. And in war, there are casualties. All we need is the clearance to go on this mission and we can take this guy out before he can kill any more people that we're close to." She took a breath, interrupting her impassioned speech. "We can't let him do that."

"I'm not sure how I feel about that," Ash said, shuffling his feet on the ground.

Ilse's eyes were burning as she turned to look at Ash. "If anyone else has to die in this madness, it should be him."

Brock nodded. "If that's what it takes for this to end for good, then it's the only option."

"But—" Ash started.

"No buts, Ash." Misty cut him off. "If we're risking out lives to do this, then we have to make sure that this is really the end. She turned to look at Ilse. "What do we do?"

Ilse walked over to stand beside Noah. "This is what we were thinking."

* * *

**A/N: **Getting into the realness! I hope that you like this chapter and it's getting you excited for the action. Oh, and Ash and Misty broke up. Do you need tissues? Here are some virtual tissues. Tell me all about what you think!

Well, life is weird right now. I've been meeting people very unlike myself, been experiencing new things and hearing even newer/weirder (very, very weird) things. I'm in a weird place as I post this author's note. I'm going to go hug a pillow now. Thanks for reading.


	12. Sink or Swim

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** A million thanks to my beta C'sMelody!

* * *

**Sink or Swim**

They stayed up half the night polishing and perfecting a plan that left no question as to who would win this battle. It was killing Ilse to not tell her parents everything that she knew but she knew that she had to keep her mouth shut. So she sat, interjecting when appropriate, and listened the rest of the time, eyes closed, trying to visualize the scene in her head.

Part way through, they had called Drew and May, knowing that they'd have to take time to get back to Kanto, as well as Jessie and James, and Gary Oak. It hadn't been a shock to Ilse, but she had to ask who Jessie and James were anyway, despite the fact that she had known them both since birth. She saw Jessie and James and their twin sons rather infrequently, but she was familiar with them nonetheless.

It was interesting to hear what her parents had to say about these people now as opposed to the watered down tales she had heard when she was younger. Her parents had never divulged the little detail that they were ex-Rocket members and had terrorized Ash, Misty, and Brock's childhoods.

Funny how parents leave that sort of thing out.

They explained that Jessie and James were needed because they knew were the Rocket Base was most recently located. They had left the group less than three years prior, and they imagined that it would be hard to secretly relocate the entire Rocket home base—it was likely in the same spot.

In addition to being Coordinators, May and Drew were excellent Pokémon Trainers and would be there for backup manpower. They would be able to cover more ground with the two of them.

Then there was Gary, who had more resources than even Ash as Champion did. Being grandson of Professor Oak had perks, but Gary had grown up to be quite the scientist himself. As much as Ash hated to admit it when they were children, Gary didn't just have average intelligence—he was kind of a genius. They knew that Gary would be useful, they just didn't know with what quite yet.

They told Misty's sisters. Rather, Misty told her sisters. She didn't know what she expected—for them to forbid her from going? For them to openly weep and tell her to be careful? Well, neither of those things happened. They just told her, "You live your life, baby sister," and went back to painting each other's nails.

Misty came back and told the guys right then and there that she was not leaving the Gym in their hands.

Of course, it wasn't hard to talk Misty out of that. No matter how flaky her sister's acted, they were good Pokémon Trainers and the Gym would be fine. Maybe it wouldn't flourish in the way it did when Misty was in charge, but hey, people had to get the Cascade Badge somehow! And it was only going to be for a day or two anyway. Hopefully.

Then came the tough part. The League.

Ash must have spent over an hour on the phone and when he came back to tell everyone how the call went, he looked exhausted. He had taken of his hat and his hair was incredibly disheveled, evidence of him running his fingers through it exasperatedly.

"How did it go?" Brock asked hesitantly.

Ash collapsed on a couch and pulled Pikachu into his lap, stroking the Electric mouse absentmindedly. "It would have been easier just to quit," he muttered.

"So it was successful, then?" Ilse asked hopefully.

Ash gave a weak smile. "Yeah."

Ilse had to resist the urge to hop up and punch the air in victory.

"They were really annoyed by the fact that I deviated away from my field job only to specifically request a field mission," Ash explained. "The idea of the Champion going on this mission when Team Rocket is already feeling trigger-happy was what was really holding them back. Honestly they didn't even start listening to me until I told them that I was going whether they gave me clearance or not." He smiled. "But now that we have it, we're free to make those bastards pay."

She couldn't wait.

* * *

If anyone went into the Cerulean Gym that day, they would have immediately called the police, claiming it was ransacked by thieves. And on first appearance, that's definitely what it looked like. The cabinets had been scavenged through, various Pokémon were no longer in their usual tanks, and basic supplies had vanished from the house.

And that's why the Gym was closed for the day.

Of course, if it had been thieves, they would have been especially bad ones because anything of any real value, besides the Pokémon that is, were left untouched. It was because Ash, Misty, Brock, Ilse, and Noah had spent the last few hours searching every inch of the Gym for things that could be potentially helpful on their journey. Items for themselves as well to equip to and treat their Pokémon.

As they did so, their team began to take shape. First, Gary Oak, who was only a few towns away, showed up. He had two bags, one with the basic supplies everyone else was scrounging for and one bag with gadgets that he wouldn't let anyone touch.

He was followed by Jessie and James, who to everyone's surprise, were newly married, and Meowth.

"This betta be good, twerp," Meowth said as he sharpened his nails with a nail file. "Yer takin' me away from my Trainin' ta evolve, ya know."

They informed everyone that last they knew the Rocket Base was located deep within the Viridian Forest and that it was very hard to find. It was so well hidden that even wandering Trainers never found it. And the few that did never lived to tell the tale.

Last to show up were Drew and May, who had to come from a contest on Cinnabar Island. By the time they arrived everyone was fully packed and more than eager to go. However, rather than leave right then, they made plans to leave early the next morning, so that they could get in a good night's rest. Not that any of them knew how they would manage to sleep that night, but they had to at least try. Who knew when the next time they would be able to sleep would be?

* * *

The next morning they landed in a Viridian that was completely different than the one that Ilse was used to. There were a lot more trees and the buildings looked a lot smaller. It seemed more residential than the buzzing metropolis it had become in eighteen years. Not to mention it was so early the sky was still pitch-black.

Everyone had used their Flying Types to get there as quickly as possible. Ilse could feel the chill of the brisk morning air perforating through her bones even after they landed. She rubbed her hands over her arms to warm up but even after Noah put his arm around her she couldn't stop shivering. So much so that she was starting to think that it wasn't just the early morning air that was making her shake so much.

They immediately headed into the forest. They didn't go on the beaten path, but instead went for the densest area of trees with Jessie, James, and Meowth in the lead. Following was Ash with Misty slightly behind, then Drew and May walking side by side and holding hands, and Brock, who was just in front of Noah and Ilse, who were taking up the rear. After only a few minutes of walking, the first rays of sunlight began to shine intermittently through the gaps in the trees.

"Um…" May started as she looked around anxiously. "Are you sure that there aren't any traps surrounding this place? Anything that might explode or tell anyone that we're here?"

Brock subtly turned to Ilse who just shrugged her shoulders in response.

Jessie spoke up. "No. Since Rockets have to traverse the forest randomly until an upper-level brings you to the base, they can't have any traps set up." She then scrunched her eyebrows together. "However, I would bet money that they have cameras. That must be how people find you out here."

"Wait," Gary said, "So are you saying that you've never actually been to the base on your own? You've only ever had people take you there?"

"Blindfolded," Meowth added with a nod of his head.

"Well, that's probably something that you should have told us!" May almost shouted.

"Guys, cool it," Ash said, for once being the voice of reason. "Pikachu should be able to pick up the signal from any electric devices before we come across them and then he can destroy them." Ash explained.

At that moment, Ilse wanted nothing more than to release her Pidgeot and have it survey the area. Or have her Uncle Brock send out his Crobat to use its Supersonic. The more they walked, the more the stress began taking over. She slipped her hands into her pockets so no one could see how much they trembled. She wanted everyone to think that she was the strong, intelligent Pokémon Trainer that they had all decided she was.

But the truth was that ever step they took was one step closer to the possibility of her failing. Her failing her mother, her father, her whole _life_. Ilse was usually pretty good at keeping focused. In Battles she would just get in the zone and any nervous energy she felt would just become more that she could fuel into the match. But this was different. There was too much at stake and she didn't know if she could get through it without the weight of this unfamiliar world crashing down on her.

She thought that seeing her parents right in front of her would be what would keep her steady, but she was wrong. If anything, that only made her more cognizant of everything that was at stake. No, she couldn't look at her parents for too long or she would probably collapse right there on the mossy ground.

The only thing that was keeping her even remotely sane was Noah's body next to her. She kept on sneaking glances at him and she didn't know how he did it, but he seemed perfectly passive. He looked as though he wasn't in an unfamiliar world and walking into a potentially deadly situation. That was just a part of who he was, though. Even when he battled he would keep totally even and unaffected by whatever went on around him. She hated to admit it, but right now she felt like he was her rock.

She knew that he noticed every time she jumped or so much as twitched at a sound. Every crunch she heard would give her a small burst of fear. Even though Noah wasn't responding, she noticed that May in particular was also a little jumpy. And James, who must have done this walk a hundred times before, seemed to be rather skittish.

Not to mention Meowth, who was clinging on to James' boot.

It was very strange to think that it was only a few weeks ago that she had landed with her face in the dirt in this very forest. Who knew? Maybe in this very spot.

* * *

"I'm getting hungry," Ash moaned as everyone heard his stomach grumble.

"You're always hungry, Ash," Misty muttered.

"Well how long have we been walking?" His moan turned into a whine.

Brock checked his watch. "Almost two hours."

"Wow, do you two have any idea where we are?" Drew asked the ex-Rockets, a twinge of annoyance in his tone.

"I thought we already went over—" Jessie started, but she was cut off by a shrill beeping sound.

Instantly James hit the ground. "What was that?" he asked into the grass, Meowth attached cowardly to his head.

"Sorry, that was me," Gary answered, fiddling with a strange device in his hands. "I'm setting up this tracking device. It's mapping the forest as we walk through it and it will map your progress in the base." Everyone looked at Gary with piqued interest. "Hopefully. It's a prototype."

Gary took small electronic bugs and placed them in everyone's ears. They were almost like stick-on earrings, and he placed them carefully on the cartilage of the shell of the ears so that they were undetectable. "I'll be able to tell you if you're going down a hallway that you've already gone down, but you won't be able to communicate back to me."

"Wow, this is amazing, Gary," Misty gushed as she felt around her ear.

Ash glared at how close his face was to hers.

"Don't touch that!" Gary exclaimed, snatching her hand away. "It's very delicate—if you touch it you might destroy it."

"Fine, fine," Misty said, putting her hands out in front of her.

Gary sighed, running his fingers through his spiky hair. "Amateurs."

* * *

"Guys, Pikachu's picking up something."

Ash had stopped abruptly. Pikachu was sitting on his shoulder, ears twitching away. Everyone else stopped behind them, cowering slightly.

"There!" Drew called out quietly, spotting a camera hidden in the brush.

Pikachu sent out a quick Thunder Wave, and cut off its electricity.

"Why didn't we just walk around it?" May asked, concerned. "Isn't ruining their feed going to alert them that we're here?"

"Maybe," Ash said nonchalantly with a shrug, "but if we hadn't cut off that electricity Pikachu wouldn't have been able to recognize any more; this one would have been too distracting."

Brock shrugged. "Fair enough."

Then they heard a soft, yet high pitched beeping coming from the direction of the camera. Before they knew what was happening, it exploded, making them all go flying back, sharp pieces of wood pelting them. They all rolled as best they could so that they could protect their faces with the ground. They stayed like that as the air cleared, listening for anything else to discharge.

"Well, I guess they know we're here now," Drew muttered finally, wiping off his clothes as he got up off the ground.

"I thought you said there were no traps!" May cried out, looking accusingly at the ex-Rockets.

Jessie grunted as she pushed herself up. "There usually aren't—this one must have been triggered by you destroying the camera," she spat at Ash. "No Rocket would do that."

"Guys, guys, calm down," Brock said as he spat out some bark. "Let's just keep moving. We're probably close."

* * *

He stared at a screen and chuckled deep in his throat, the sound coming out low and ominous.

"The Champion and his little girlfriend. What a prize they'll be to kill."

He swiveled around in his chair, glancing down at a cage beneath him.

"Won't they, Celebi?"

* * *

**A/N: **Okay, another filler chapter, I'm sorry. Maybe I should have put these last two together. I feel like this chapter is missing something, but I just didn't really have any time to give it anything extra. Tell me what you thought of it. And thank you so much for reading!


	13. In Hot Water

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Thank you to C'sMelody, as always, for being the best beta ever!

* * *

**In Hot Water**

They almost walked right into the concrete door of the base.

"Whoa," Ash said dazedly, taking a step back from the building.

"Is this it?" Misty asked.

"Sure is," Meowth answered, his voice thick from the yawn in his throat.

It was again pitch black. They had walked the entire day and had only just started playing with the idea of setting up camp for the evening. Even though they had all been up for the better part of fifteen hours, they had continued traipsing through the woods, Gary's mapping device aiding them greatly.

They were all tired, but Ilse had renewed vigor showing on her face. "Guys, we made it! Now let's get in there and kick some ass!" she enthused.

"Yeah!" Ash cried out in agreement. "What's the code for the door?"

Everyone paused and looked to Jessie and James. The door had no apparent knob or any way to open except for a small number pad on the wall to the side of the door.

"Can we presume that you don't know that either?" Drew asked dryly.

James sweat-dropped and rubbed the back of his neck self-consciously. "Well…"

Drew rolled his eyes and flipped his hair with the hand that wasn't holding May's. "Typical."

While they were squabbling, Gary had begun fiddling with the number pad. He had opened the front of the box and was deftly handling the wires inside. Everyone watched curiously as he disconnected and crossed different wires, all with seemingly fluid dextarity.

After just a few minutes, they heard a light click. Everyone stepped back, not knowing what to expect. After just a second, the heavy, concrete door slid to the side, into the wall, revealing a dark hallway.

"And that's how it's done," Gary said haughtily as he wiped his hands on each other, smiling smugly. He easily slid the metal front of the electric box back into place, making it look as though it hadn't just been tampered with. "The door should stay open until they notice that there's something wrong. And even then I would bet that it will take a while for them to fix. Now hand me your Flying Types."

Everyone did just that, unclipping their Flying Types' 'Balls and handing them to Gary. He was set to wait outside and send all the rescued test subjects in need of immediate medical attention out of the forest to safety, all whilst tracking everyone inside.

"Okay, everyone knows their groups," Ash stated once they were done. "Let's do this thing!"

They all split in different directions. Jessie and James had explained earlier that the base was separated into two main wings—left and right. On the left were all the laboratories and the dorms—if you could even call them that—that the test subjects stayed in. On the right were the Grunt dorms, offices, artillery rooms, and all things on the offensive front.

So Jessie, James, Meowth, and Brock headed left and Ash, Misty, Drew, May, Ilse, and Noah went to the right.

The place was like the most intricate of Spinarak webs—a multitude of hallways in all directions angling this way and that. Almost as soon as the right wing group separated from the left, they had to separate again and head down different corridors.

As much as Ilse wanted to stick to her dad like glue and make sure that nothing happened to him, she knew that she couldn't. She couldn't let Misty see her attachment to him anymore—it had caused enough problems already. More importantly, the best thing that she could do for her father was to find The Masked Man herself. So she contented herself with holding the hand that Noah had proffered her earlier.

On Ilse's other side was her Golduck, which she had released moments prior as Noah released his Sneasel. With their Pokémon already out, they would be prepared to fight anyone who got in their way.

Fortunately, it seemed that the front part of the base wasn't especially heavily occupied. Ilse didn't fully understand the inner workings of Team Rocket, but she assumed that most of the members spent their time training or in the labs. They must only get this close to the door when they needed to go outside the compound.

Therefore, this was their opportunity to make the best time. Ilse's pace quickened and without question, Noah's followed. Their Pokémon matched their increased speed and the four of them made it hurriedly from hallway to hallway.

Ilse didn't even bother to take note of their surroundings—it was too accessible of a location for there to be any offices, much less the boss's office. So what was the point? She noticed, however, that Noah was taking stock of every unlabeled room they ran by. They had made it through a number of hallways; so many that Ilse had lost count of the rights and lefts that they had taken. She only assumed that they weren't going in circles because Gary would have told them if they were.

They might as well have been, though.

The Rocket compound was dreary and depressing, probably to stunt any individualist thinking that the Grunts may have. The floor, ceiling, walls, and even the doors were all the same exact shade of dull off-white. That combined with the almost too-bright florescent lighting made your mind just want to shrink away to a world of darkness, just to get away from all the white. The perfect place to cultivate a hive-mentality.

"Stop there!"

Ilse and Noah had just turned another corner and found a Grunt wandering the hallway. Ilse assumed that he was fairly new to Team Rocket because of the barely-masked expression of surprise apparent on his face and the way the gun shook in his outstretched hands. He didn't look to be much older than her either, which almost made her feel bad for the guy.

But he was in the way of her saving her father's life and had a gun pointed at her, so that was a _very_ thin almost.

"Golduck, use Disable."

Golduck's eyes began to glow a bright blue, almost matching its own skin color, and immediately the Grunt was frozen to the spot. He looked lifeless like a statue.

"Let's go," Ilse said.

Noah followed behind her, taking a quick moment to pluck the gun off of the Grunt.

"Good thinking," Ilse commented.

With the gun, maybe those Grunts would think twice before getting in the way of her saving her dad.

Brock didn't like this place.

It seemed almost like a hospital, complete with the overly-sterile smell. Except that there were no warm colors or nondescript paintings to lure you into a false sense of comfort. No, at the very least this place was honest in what it was.

And Brock wasn't too eager to find out exactly what that was.

It didn't help that his only company were the ex-Rocket trio and his Forretress and Crobat beside him. Crobat was the only Flying Pokémon that hadn't been left with Gary. They figured that one would be needed on the inside in order to quickly transport the children to the outside. Crobat, with its amazing speed, was the Pokémon for the job.

Either way, Brock was just grateful to have a couple of his friends out beside him—the ex-Rockets weren't much company. Nevertheless, he looked over to the three of them. "How did you guys live here?" he found himself saying.

"You're forgetting that we _didn't_ live here. We weren't Grunts, you know," Jessie answered snootily.

Their voices echoed through the hallway, bouncing off the hard walls with nothing to absorb the vibrations. There was no other sound. He knew that because of that he should probably keep quiet, but he couldn't help but want to fill the space with something other than the _death_ it felt like.

"Why are there no doors?" he asked.

It was a fair question.

At that point they'd been going for quite a few minutes through the convoluted hallways, yet there were no doors to speak of except for the first one that they had walked through. It was starting to feel like they weren't on a mission to save people but instead had been placed in a mouse maze.

"Test subjects are the most likely to try and escape," James explained detachedly. "So they wouldn't allow their dorms or even the labs to be too close to the entrance. Unlike Grunts, they have no reason to go outside. In their whole lives they see hardly more than their rooms, a few labs, and a multitude of identical hallways."

Brock cringed. That wasn't living at all.

They turned a corner and something ran right into Brock.

He let out a breath of air and stumbled backwards as Forretress reflexively brought up Protect as a barrier. Jessie, James, and Meowth immediately went on the offensive, lunging toward whatever had bumped into Brock.

Meowth was about to unleash a Fury Swipes Attack before Brock shouted, "No! Stop!"

There in front of them was a little girl. She looked no older than eight and had pressed herself against the wall as if hoping to shrink into it. She was trembling and looking up at them with fear painted all over her eyes. She was impossibly thin and her hair was hanging limp to her shoulders. Not to mention the dark bruises lining her arms and legs.

"Don't do anything to me, please," she whimpered.

Her broken voice made Brock's heart clench in his chest. He tried to smile reassuringly and crouched down so that he was face to face with the little girl. "Don't worry, we're here to help you. Can you tell me where anyone else in need of rescuing is?"

The girl nodded timidly and pointed from the direction from which she had come.

"Thank you." Brock continued smiling. He straightened and waved to Crobat. "Crobat, carry her out of here and then come straight back."

The girl was still cowering away from Brock, but as afraid as she was of him, she was even more scared of whatever was lying farther down the hallway. So, reluctantly, she hopped onto Crobat's back, with Brock's help, and clutched to it until her knuckles were white.

Once they were out of sight, Brock turned in the direction that the girl had run from. "We must be close."

"I'm so glad that I'm not Ash and Misty right now," May declared as she and Drew walked hand in hand. On either side, May had her Blaziken and Drew had his Butterfree.

"Why do you say that?" Drew asked as he looked cautiously around every corner, making sure the coast was clear before he would let May into the next hallway.

She rolled her eyes at his concern for her but couldn't help smiling as she did so. She continued, "Well, I feel strong enough to do this because I'm with you. They're in a messy enough situation as it is, without being stuck in here."

Before rounding the next corner, Drew pulled May quickly to him and gave her a quick peck on the lips. "I feel the same way," he said.

Their next corner held their first Grunts—three to be exact.

"Whirlwind," Drew called, not stopping for a second.

Drew's Butterfree began flapping its wings rapidly, forming a small tornado in its wake. The Whirlwind blew the three Grunts in a perfect half-circle, landing them behind Drew and May. The vortex had been perfectly aimed, encompassing the three Grunts but only slightly mussing up May and Drew's hair, which Drew fixed with a quick hair-flip.

"Double Kick," May then called.

The move turned into a triple-kick as Blaziken smoothly kicked the three Grunts down the hall.

"Wow, May," Drew said incredulously.

May just shrugged, tossing her hair over her shoulder. "Who cares about internal bleeding—they were in our way."

Drew was still staring at her. "You are so hot."

Ash and Misty didn't talk as they moved down the hall. They moved quickly and efficiently, trying their best not to make any sounds that would alert anyone of their presence. Ash, of course, had Pikachu on his shoulder and Misty had called her Starmie, who was gliding through the air beside them.

Being with the others hadn't been so bad. Both at the Gym and in the woods, it was easy to talk and it was easy to feel relatively comfortable in silence as well. However, being alone, just the two of them, was almost painfully awkward. And yes, they could have separated and been paired off with other people—other people whose pairs were essentially set in stone—or they could have just joined the other groups separately. But they didn't want to do the latter, because then they would cover less ground. And the former wasn't any better because those groups were inseparable and additionally, no matter how awkward Ash and Misty felt towards each other personally right now, they knew each other's techniques the best and balanced each other well. This was proven by the few Grunts that they had already taken down, despite their distinct lack of communication.

They were truly stuck together.

The genuine lack of any sound was beginning to get to Ash. A part of him didn't want to be the first to break the silence but he was getting antsy. And the last thing he needed while storming the Team Rocket base was added anxiety. Sensing his tension, Pikachu patted Ash's head reassuringly. With Pikachu's support he decided to give it a shot.

"Misty?"

There was no response. She didn't so much as turn in his direction.

"Misty?" he tried again.

"What?" she snapped, still not looking his way.

They edged around a corner and, upon seeing that the coast was clear, Ash ventured on. "I'm really sorry."

"About which part?" Misty asked sardonically.

Ash sighed. He hated being the one to apologize. The very nature of their relationship was that neither of them would give more than the other. But they were in a life or death situation here. Maybe the realism of that would distract her enough that she would just forgive him. Ash clung to that theory as he continued, "Everything."

She finally looked at him. "So what does that mean, Ash?" she asked, throwing her hands up in the air exasperatedly. "That everything's fine now? You apologized so suddenly there's no more problem?"

Well, it was a nice thought.

"Misty, we don't even have a problem!" Ash finally shouted, his frustration coming to a peak. "The first thing you were mad about," he didn't even want to say what it was out loud. Who knew? Saying _her_ name was bound to get her even angrier at him, "was just a misunderstanding. And the second thing! You knew that you were going to go on this mission with me no matter what, so why'd you have to go and get so angry about it, huh?"

Her snapping at him had always had a tendency to make him blow up in return. She was his fuse and he was her dynamite.

"If you don't understand then why should I tell you?"

"You should tell me _because_ I don't understand!"

"Why can't you figure it out for yourself?"

"Because you're impossible to understand!"

"Well maybe if boys would just pay more attention!"

"I pay plenty of attention!"

"Do not!"

"Do too!"

"Ugh!"

They weren't even moving down the hallway anymore. They were standing in the middle of the Rocket compound, just shouting back and forth. Eventually the yelling stopped and it was just their fiery eyes locked electrically on each other as Pikachu and Starmie sweat-dropped behind them. Pikachu's ears were drooped and it held a pitying smile on its face as it looked on at the two's familiar antics. Then suddenly its ears perked straight up and began twitching.

"Pika?"

"Well, well, well, the Champion and his bitch."

Suddenly a bright light flashed above them and Ash and Misty, as well as Pikachu and Starmie, found themselves unable to move, as if frozen to the ground. In front of them appeared a Rocket member and a Muk on the ground beside him.

"I knew it would be useful to teach you Snatch and Fling," he said, patting the Muk on the top of its blobby form, though there was no affection in his eyes as he did so. "Missing this?" Between his fingers he held a Light Ball. "Kind of predictable to have a Light Ball on a Pikachu, isn't it?" The Rocket smirked, his bright blue eyes narrowed menacingly. "Finding it difficult to talk, are we? Strange. Wasn't that a little lovers' squabble I just heard? Wow, I had no idea that there was trouble in paradise."

As he spoke the words he was walking between Ash and Misty, pausing to touch Misty's hair and lightly stroke her cheek. Though Ash's facial expression couldn't change, there was no question that this stranger could feel the anger emanating from his body. He then walked straight up to Ash, their noses hardly an inch away from each other.

"Maybe I should just take her for myself, then."

The Rocket was so close he almost missed it, but he saw Ash's mouth twitch, forming into a snarl. His eyebrows rose.

"Stubborn aren't we? Seems you're trying to resist the paralysis." The man turned back to his Muk. "And we can't have that, can we? Let's bring them back to the office before they start really trying to break free."

He ran his fingers through his dark blue hair and then whipped out a gun and trained it on them.

"There's no rush, though."

"Ash? Misty? You guys haven't moved in a long time." Gary's voice was coming in weak and scratchy through the small device. "If you don't move I'm going to assume that you were stuck somewhere and I'm going to send in someone else to rescue you. If you do move then I won't."

And just like that, his voice cut out.

Unfortunately, Ash and Misty were in no position to move.

The paralysis was now starting to wear off, leaving a tingling in their bodies, but now they could move slightly. The pain was bearable, so they certainly could have escaped.

It was really the ropes that were slowing them down.

Ash and Misty had been stuck in so many ropes that they knew better than to try and wriggle free. Squirming would only push Starmie's spines farther into their ribs, anyhow. The four of them were tied back to back in the Rocket's office. The ropes were burning into their arms; they were tight enough that not even Pikachu could pop out.

"Thanks to you two and all of your troublemaking when you were children, everything in this building, including that rope, is resistant to electricity."

The man couldn't have been more than five or six years older than Ash and Misty, yet he was acting like he owned the place, not to mention them. He was swiveling around in a plush chair, looking at the Light Ball in his hand and smiling smugly.

"So don't even try and use that Pikachu of yours to get out."

Ash practically growled at him, his voice especially gravelly from the temporary paralysis. "What do you want with us? You haven't killed us, you're not asking us any questions—why are we here?"

The man got up and started circling the four of them. It was almost as though he was walking just to show that he could and they couldn't. "Well, it just wouldn't be any fun if you knew that, now would it?"

"How about you tell us something simple, then?" Misty suggested. "Like your name."

He stopped circling right in front of her and crouched down so that he was face to face with her. The face he gave her was domineering and altogether far too suggestive for Ash's liking. "Want to get to know me better, do you?"

Instead of retorting in Misty's usual sort, she just dropped him a sarcastic look that clearly said, "As if."

"Or are you going to try to slowly disarm me into telling you what you want to know by asking increasingly personal questions?" he asked, again upright and now strolling leisurely through the room, tossing the Light Ball and catching it. "Doesn't matter. It's not like we have anything better to do for the time being than for me to humor you a little bit and tell you about myself. The name's Lex."

"Alex?" Ash asked, confused.

"No, _Lex_," he corrected, a hint of irritation coloring his voice for the first time. "My father's name was Alex."

Misty raised her eyebrows. "And you don't like him," she surmised.

Lex turned sharply to Misty. "Close, girly. It's not that I didn't like him—I hated him." He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. You could see the shield returning, making his eyes look hard despite the bright, innocent blue color. "Do you have any idea how Team Rocket works?"

Ash and Misty both shook their heads, not daring to speak a word.

"Well," Lex started, a dark chuckle in his voice, "it's sort of a hereditary thing. Meaning if your _father_," he spat the word out, "had a debt to pay, that debt was paid through his child."

Misty let out a tiny gasp but Ash's brows just furrowed in either deep thought or confusion.

"So because my father _fucked up_, I was taken from my mother when I was four years old and recruited as a Grunt."

"Then you didn't want to be a Grunt?" Misty asked.

"Why don't you quit?" Ash added.

"I don't have any reason to," Lex stated as though it were the most reasonable thing in the world.

"But you could have a normal life!" Misty appealed, trying to give Lex a look of hope. This was their chance. If they could get him to agree with them, then he might help them out. "You could get a normal job, get married, have a fami—"

"No!" Lex roared, flipping the chair that he had been seated in over as he did so.

Ash and Misty flinched and Pikachu let out a little whine.

"I tried that before," he growled, his face close enough to Misty's that he would have been spitting at her had he not been talking from between clenched teeth. He smiled a twisted smile and sat back on his heels. "I had a girl once," he began. His voice was higher with the lilt of telling a story but his jaw was set firmly, making his whole face harsh. "Met her on one of my missions. She had dark-brown eyes but light-blond hair—it made her look mysterious. My job was to get close to her. And in doing so, I started to fall. Fall _hard_." He turned to Ash as he said that part. "So I told her everything. She answered with the same thing you just did. 'Oh, Lex, why don't you leave them? We could be happy together.'" He slammed his fist on the ground, though his voice stayed level the whole time. "Bitch left and I never heard from her again."

Misty cringed as the spittle began to rain down on her.

Lex stood up and crossed his arms in front of him, a harsh smile still painted on his face. "So why would I leave a world where I have power and money to a world like that?" He then turned around, calmly lifted his chair back to its upright position, and then returned to his desk. He picked up his gun off of his desk and pointed it at Ash and Misty, a look false of contemplation arising on his face. "In fact, why should anyone want to be in a world like that?"

He flipped the safety off and squeezed the trigger.

* * *

**A/N: **Ooh, cliffhanger, so exciting! I am sooo sorry for updating late. Yes, it's only two days late, but it's the first time I've been late updating this story. I've just been really busy, so it totally slipped my mind. See, we just opened the show that I'm teching on Wednesday, so I've had really long days all week-this story totally hasn't been something that I've been thinking about at all. Also, I was thinking about adding some stuff and splitting this chapter in two...just because the pacing seems a little abrupt...obviously I forewent that, though. On the other hand, this is probably the most exciting chapter yet, yeah? What'd you think? They're finally in the base, taking people down! Yes, action!

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.


	14. Blood Runs Thicker Than Water

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N:** Even though I updated last Friday, I'm still going back to updating every Wednesday. And, as usual, thanks to my amazing beta C'sMelody! We had a lengthy chat about this somewhat controversial chapter.

* * *

**Blood Runs Thicker Than Water**

The farther Ilse and Noah went into the base, the more Grunts there were. And unlike the first one they ran into, these ones were experienced and expecting them. Of course, part of that was because Ilse was aiming all of her Attacks farther down the hallway in the direction they were going. She had given up on Disable and was now working a combination of Confusion and Water Pulse. Confusion had decent range, so she could disorient any Grunt or Pokémon up ahead and then shoot them down the corridor with Water Pulse. Maybe it was a little reckless, but Ilse knew that if they were to approach anyone in their own party, Gary would send them a warning.

Noah kept on telling her that shooting the enemies in the direction they were headed was stupid because they'd just have to deal with them later. She knew that he was right, but she was hopeful that the combination of the Attacks would leave anyone who received both of them confused and thus incapacitated. Then they wouldn't be able to fight back and she and Noah could run right past.

Besides, it was the quickest way.

And for the most part, much to Noah's chagrin, she was right. And the few Grunts and Pokémon that came back at them wanting more ended up on the receiving end of Sneasel's Feint Attack. That would leave them out cold on the ground without question.

"Alyssa?"

Suddenly Ilse whipped around, turning her head back and forth to see who had called her by that name. After a moment, she realized that it was Gary talking to her. Noah was looking at her questioningly and she just pointed to her ear in response.

She was silent for a few moments, nodding subconsciously occasionally. As she did so, her face paled and she was cupping one hand around her ear and plugging the other one, desperate to hear better.

"What?" Noah asked after Ilse had let her hands fall to her sides.

She turned to him with a look of fear in her eyes.

"Gary thinks my parents have been captured."

* * *

It was gruesome.

At first glance, most of the test subjects looked relatively normal. Tired, maybe, but for the most part, normal. Then you would get a little closer and notice that their eyes weren't focusing on you and they were actually blind or you would see hundreds of little scabs and scars on their necks and arms from needles.

Brock didn't even want to think about what he would see if he stepped foot in one of the laboratories.

Everything he saw so far made his heart ache. The only thing that was keeping him from collapsing to the floor in a puddle of loathing for humanity was the barely-there glint of vitality that would appear in the subjects' eyes when he told them that he was there to help them escape.

As startling as it was to look at these abused kids, it was almost stranger to talk with them.

Not that he was having full length conversations by any means—this wasn't really the time for that—but their responses to him telling them that they were about to be rescued were interesting. They all showed the same hopeful glimmer in their eye at first but that's where the similarities stopped.

There was one older girl, maybe twelve or thirteen with long brown hair cut in a few choppy layers. When James had told her that they were going to take her out she just stood up straight and put her arms at her sides and said calmly, "I'm not going to fall for that. I have complete allegiance to Team Rocket and would never think of running away."

James hadn't been able to help but cock his head in confusion. "It's not a trap," he had responded. "We're not with Team Rocket and we're actually here to save you."

That girl had taken a long time to convince but when they finally did she broke down crying.

All the other kids who refused to leave only said that they wouldn't do so until they could find one of their friends and make sure that they would leave together. It was comforting to Brock to know that even in this horrific world these kids had grown up in, they still had the pleasure of having friends and people to lean on.

The kid that Brock was following now—Jessie, James, and Meowth were a few hallways back, still working their way through the corridor—was a red-headed boy. Well, not boy so much as teenager. He looked to be around fifteen or so, a little younger than May and Drew. He was taking Brock farther and farther, past a number of rooms that Brock knew that he would probably just have to go back to later.

It baffled him how anyone could know their way around this place. Every hallway was identical. The only thing that he could even think of as a method to keep track was just to memorize the turns. And that seemed impossible. But lo and behold, the boy in front of him was leading him with perfect assurance. It seemed he knew exactly where he was going and he had a hardened determination in his face that showed Brock that nothing was going to stop him.

They stopped in front of a door that, strangely enough, was open just a crack. That in and of itself was enough to pique Brock's curiosity. None of the doors that they had come across had been opened or even unlocked—they'd had to knock on every one and hope for the best.

The boy hesitated for a second before reaching a trembling hand to the door, wincing a little as he opened it.

And there it was: a laboratory.

The room was dark, lit only by large tubes that ran from the floor to the ceiling that were filled with bubbling liquid lining one wall of the room. Nothing was suspended in them currently, but Brock couldn't help but assume that's not how it always was. Aside from them, the entire room seemed to be made of metal, dully reflecting the crude light with a cold stare.

But when the door opened, the front of the room became flooded with the harsh light from the hallway.

"Who's there?" a man shouted.

His voice was muffled because he was wearing a cloth mask over his mouth, but the shout carried through the room as a loud echo. He was wearing a long lab coat and goggles and in his hand was a syringe. Clearly he was a scientist or a doctor. Given the circumstances, Brock assumed scientist. Beside him was a metal table that looked almost like a gurney and strapped onto it was a teenage girl.

"You," the scientist growled, looking at the red-haired boy with something akin to disgust. "Get out of here if you know what's good for you."

It was almost as though he didn't even notice Brock.

Taking advantage of that, Brock subtly reached to his 'Belt for a PokéBall and released it into the hallway. "Get him," Brock whispered behind him.

Geodude went flying into the room, faster than any airborne rock should, and immediately locked its strong arms around the scientist. The needle fell to the ground, spilling the liquid that was in it all over the metal floor.

"You fool! That took me weeks to refine!"

Geodude moved a large, hard hand to the struggling scientist's mouth.

Throughout the whole exchange, the red-haired boy had been oddly motionless, hesitant to even take a foot into the lab, as though it would be crossing a threshold. A very painful one.

"Silver?" a weak voice called from the table.

He seemed to snap out of his reverie at the sound of what Brock could only assume was his name and burst into action. "Lyra!"

He ran into the room, careful to avoid the spilt liquid on the ground and started pulling madly at the straps keeping the girl—Lyra—to the table.

"Silver, you know that won't work," Lyra rasped as she watched him struggle.

"No!" he cried. "We need to get you out of here!"

"What are you talking about?" Lyra asked, confusedly.

Brock watched the two of them with great interest. They were entirely in their own world. The girl, Lyra, seemed extraordinarily weak, but she and Silver seemed to fuel passion in one another. So much passion that it seemed Silver could no longer think straight—it kind of reminded him of two people he knew. And like those _someones_, he figured these two could use a little help.

"Geodude, use Stealth Rock."

As Geodude was still holding the scientist in a rib-shattering vice grip, small shards of rock appeared around his body, bathed in white light.

"Silver, step back," Brock warned.

Reluctantly, Silver moved back, but kept his eyes trained on Lyra. The shards floated through the air toward Lyra and wedged themselves between the metal table and the straps. With a sharp motion, all the rocks shot up and ripped the straps into a million pieces.

Though Lyra was now free, she was still weak. She pushed her hands on the table and tried to push herself up but ended up falling back to the table with a thud.

"Lyra?" Silver asked running back to her side. "Are you okay?"

Lyra gave a painful smile. "I'm fine. Just…could you help me up?"

Just then, with impeccable timing, Brock's Crobat came sweeping into the room. Silver slipped Lyra into his arms and was holding her bridal style, and though he was hiding it on his face, Brock could tell that he was struggling to do so. Silver clearly suffered from some of the same weakness that Lyra did.

"There's no need for that, kid," Brock said. "Just put her on Crobat."

Silver didn't even think about it. He immediately walked, albeit shakily, over to Crobat and placed Lyra as carefully as he could on the back of the large bat Pokémon.

"You too," Brock said to Silver, gesturing to Crobat.

Brock helped Silver join Lyra on his Pokémon's back and pat Crobat on the head. With that simple gesture it took off out of the lab and down the hallway.

Brock then turned back to the scientist. At this point he had given up struggling and instead was just glaring at Brock. Brock shared a smug look with Geodude.

"Now, to deal with you."

* * *

"Wow."

"This is not a place to be in awe of, Drew," May snapped, appalled at her boyfriend's behavior as he stopped in front of an uncharacteristically open door. The place was stomach-churning, not a place to be wide-eyed and gaping at.

"No, May, come look in here." Drew gestured for her to follow behind him as he went into the room.

May reluctantly followed, frowning as she walked into the unlit room. It was one thing to go through the hallways of the Rocket compound, but it was completely different to actually step foot into one of the rooms where they committed their atrocities.

But the room was unlike anything she imagined.

At first glance the room looked completely normal. There were books lining every wall from top to bottom. It was just like any library that you would find in a nice mansion, except that when you went closer, you would find that the books were all in fact, identical. Journals. They had handwritten subjects on the spine such as _Genetics_ or _Evolution_ or_ Cloning_, followed by dates.

"What do you think they are?" May asked as she fingered one of the spines.

Drew had gone one step further, picked up one of the diaries, and blowing the dust off of it. This one looked particularly old. The pages were yellow and crinkled, a number of them loose in the binding. He carefully flipped through the pages, glancing only briefly at them while flipping his hair when it got into his eyes. "They look like recordings of experiments."

Not wanting to dwell too long on the studies described in the journal, Drew returned the book back to its shelf and went further into the room with May in toe.

"Hmm, it looks like these are in order by subject and date," May observed.

"Let's find the most recent one."

May cocked her head. "Why? Shouldn't we go back out and keep looking?"

Drew shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly, as though it weren't a matter of life and death. "It might serve us well to know what they're working on right now."

She couldn't argue with that.

They scoured the library and May found a journal dated to just a few days prior.

"Drew, look at this."

It was labeled _Celebi_.

May sat down on the floor and pulled down Drew with her as they started reading it. They read the first few pages to find recorded accounts that were similar to legends that May and Drew had heard in their youth. Drew pulled the book towards him and turned to the last few pages. They had only just started reading that when they heard footsteps.

The door creaked open and the lights switched on.

* * *

They were sprinting down the hallway.

Ilse was once again cupping her hand to her ear to make sure that she didn't miss a single direction that Gary gave her. Noah was for the most part right next to her except for when she would take a sharp, unexpected turn.

They had taken off as soon as Ilse told him that her parents were in trouble. Noah asked for further explanation, but Ilse refused to give any until he was running along beside her. Fortunately, Sneasel and Golduck didn't find it hard to keep up and shoot Attacks between them to boot.

Ilse huffed as she told Noah that Gary said that they were the closest to her parents' location and that's why he asked them. As it happened, they were actually quite close to her parents to begin with, so it wasn't long until Gary told her that she should start looking for a door. Their dots on his map were very close to each other, so if she couldn't see them in front of her, there must just be a wall between them.

Unfortunately, the hallway was lined with locked doors.

She tried all of them, yanking on the handles recklessly with no regard for the fact that someone on the other side of that door could easily come out and capture her and Noah as well.

She didn't know what being captured by Team Rocket yielded, but she did not want to waste a second for her parents to find out. She was so close to saving them—she couldn't allow that to be for nothing.

Finally a door gave. The doorknob was locked, so at first when she tried it, it seemed as though the door was just like all the others. But then she noticed that it moved a little and that the door was slightly ajar. This must be the right one.

"Stop!" Ilse yelled as they threw open the door.

They ran into the room just in time to hear the gun fire.

* * *

"Stop!"

Lex jerked the gun at the last second and the bullet ricocheted off the ceiling and landed with a ding on the floor, chipping the tile.

"What the fuck‽" he exclaimed, startled by the shout.

He put the safety on the gun and put it down to shake out his wrist. It had twisted slightly by the abrupt change in direction of the gun in addition to the hard recoil. Then he turned a hard gaze to the two intruders in his office. One was a girl with black hair who was staring at the bullet on the ground and nearly sobbing. Beside her was a boy with navy blue hair who had a slack-jaw expression on his face that was directed…at him.

"What are you looking at?" Lex asked with a glare, picking up his gun again and pointing it at the boy.

Then out of the corner of his eye he saw the girl stop her blubbering and run towards the Champion to begin fiddling with the knots.

"Stop that!" He turned to the gun so that it was on her. "Don't think that I won't fire, because you already know that I will."

"No, you don't understand," the girl pleaded, a look of desperation clear on her face.

Lex scoffed. "Sure, I don't. You're trying to save your buddies. Or are you related to them? You do look kinda like Mister Champion over there with the hair and all."

"She's not related to him, she's related to me," Misty corrected.

"Not the time, Mist," Ash murmured.

"Whatever," Lex said. "You get to say goodbye to both of them." Yet again, he took the safety off his gun.

"No, wait!" the blue-haired boy cried, pulling out his own gun and pointing it toward Lex.

"And why would I do that?" he asked, completely unfazed by the gun as the boy moved toward him. He had zero expectation that this boy would have the balls to be able to pull the trigger.

"I have something to tell you. Something I think you'll really want to hear," the boy said strongly, now only a few feet away from him.

Lex smirked. This should be good. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Keeping on hand on his gun, the boy took out of his pocket a small, folded picture and thrust it into Lex's face. Upon seeing it, Lex felt his heart rate quicken, but he betrayed none of it on his face.

"Where did you get that?" he asked calmly.

"I'll tell you when you put the gun down."

He didn't want to, but something in his heart made him put the gun back on his desk and even push it farther away. The boy turned around and nodded to the girl that he had come with. She immediately called over her Pokémon and started working on the ropes. How naïve. Even that Sneasel wouldn't be able to cut through them.

"Well?" he asked the boy, trying to keep his voice level.

"Lilah gave it to me."

He started. "Lilah?" Lex whispered.

The boy nodded. In his hand he was holding a picture of Lex—the only picture Lex could remember ever being taken of him. Rules were strict in the Rocket compound and there was no need for things as frivolous as pictures. Lilah had taken this one of him saying that she wanted a piece to remember him by in case anything ever happened. She wasn't stupid. She knew that just because she asked him to leave Team Rocket didn't mean that they would always be safe together. But it turned out that there was never going to be anything _together_. He felt the rage bubbling up inside himself again.

"Well, why the fuck did she give it to you?" he snapped.

"Lex, don't be mad at her."

That caught him off-guard. This kid knew his name? Well of course he did. _She _must have told him.

Lex arched his eyebrow disinterestedly at the boy. "And why the hell not?"

Ever since he pulled out the picture the boy had been talking calmly and levelly—reminding Lex much of the way that he carried himself when he spoke. Save the occasions in which his anger got the best of him. But now he noticed a difference in the boy's eyes that was so minute that most wouldn't notice. It was a softness that made Lex know that whatever this kid was going to say what the truth.

And he wouldn't want to hear it.

"She didn't leave you because she didn't love you. She left because she's pregnant."

No.

No, that was not true—this bastard kid was lying!

"You're lying!" he shouted. Lex felt an unfamiliar, out of control feeling welling up inside his chest. He reached over his desk fumbling for the gun. He knew it was pointless, though, because the boy had refolded the picture and put it back in his pocket and was holding his gun practically at point blank.

"Don't even think it."

Normally he wouldn't listen to a kid like this, but something in his gut told him that he had to and that he wouldn't be able to shoot him anyway. It was like there was a force that would keep him from hurting him. He stopped reaching for the gun and relaxed his breathing. "That doesn't make sense," he finally said, his eyes losing their hardness. "Why would she leave because of that?"

"Fear can do crazy things to a person," the boy explained. "She was prepared to live a life in danger with you, but she couldn't do that to her child. The idea of having both you and him in danger was too much, so she decided to save her baby, even if it meant sacrificing her relationship with you."

"Him?" Lex asked softly. "It's a boy?"

The boy let a smile on his face for just a moment and nodded his head. "And believe me, there won't be a day that she doesn't miss you and regret the fact that you aren't there with her as a family. She really loved you."

Lex nodded weakly, the new information making his mind swirl.

"Hey, I got them out of the rope! Let's go!"

The girl had finally managed to untie the rope. The four were free and standing up, rubbing the parts of their skin that the rope had dug into, except for the Starmie.

The boy turned back to the girl. "Just a sec," he called.

Despite his friends waiting on him impatiently, the boy hesitated, looking as though he was struggling with something. As though a life-changing decision was weighing on his mind. Then the look vanished and was replaced with one of the upmost confidence, aimed at Lex.

"Look," the boy said hurriedly. "In case you haven't already guessed, we're going to take down your leader today and disband Team Rocket for good. Take this as your second chance."

Lex watched as the boy turned around to rejoin his group.

A second chance…

"Wait, kid!" Lex called out.

The boy turned back and threw him a questioning look.

"Right, left, left, right, left, straight."

Understanding, the boy flashed him a smile and ran over to the girl. The four of them and their Pokémon went bolting into the hallway and took a right.

* * *

**A/N:** Ooh, plot twist! What do you guys think of that? Remember all those chapters of filler buildup? Well, I hope that this is making up for it a little bit.**  
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	15. Eye of the Storm

**Weather the Storm**

**Pairings:** Mainly PokéShipping; Ash/Misty, slight ContestShipping; Drew/May, slight RocketShipping; James/Jessie, slight SoulSilverShipping, OC/OC.

**Rating:** T for language, suggestive themes, and violence.

**Disclaimer:** I do not own, nor am I affiliated in any way with the Pokémon franchise. This story is merely for entertainment. I, however, do own my OCs. I also don't own_ Back to the Future _or anything else you could relate this storyline to.

**A/N: **Thank you to my beta C'sMelody, who had a lot of mistakes to correct this chapter. Oops.

* * *

**Eye of the Storm **

It wasn't too much trouble to take care of the scientist.

Since he was already in Geodude's clutches, all the Rock Type had to do was nail a blow to the side of head and the scientist crumpled to the floor. As morbid as it felt to do so, Brock then had Geodude lift and strap the limp body to the table so that when he came to, he wouldn't be able to escape.

Brock almost felt bad. But then he looked at the liquid that was still spilt on the ground. He shuddered to think what was in it that he was going to inject into that young girl, Lyra. Thoughts of that and what kinds of experiments this man had done to her, Silver, and all the other children in the past. Thinking about it made Brock so angry that he gave the guy a punch in the place where a man should never be punched.

Smirking slightly, Brock left the room with Geodude in toe. Before he did so, though, he made sure to lock it so that no one would suspect that anything was wrong in there. In the hallway, he looked left and right, suddenly overcome with confusion. He had known that he would have to backtrack quite a bit, but he didn't exactly remember where he was. Silver had led him through a number of hallways, but he had done it so fast that Brock didn't remember exactly how he had gotten to the lab.

Brock was about to give up and just wait for Crobat to come back and use his Supersonic to guide them back to where Jessie and James should be, but just then Brock heard Gary's voice in his ear.

"Lost, are we?"

It boggled Brock's mind how even in a situation like this Gary could still flaunt his superiority. Then again, he had to give the guy credit for hitting the nail on the head like that.

"I'll just assume that you are. I'll give you directions and if you go the wrong way I'll know that you're not lost and I'll stop."

So Brock followed Gary's directions to a tee until he found himself in a hallway full of open doors.

"Okay, so it looks like you're there. Man, I hope you're almost done because I'm going to need backup out here with all these kids."

After that, Brock heard the piece in his ear go dead and the sound of Gary's voice was replaced with the sound of James'.

"Jessica, finally we've done something good and meaningful with our lives. All of that bad karma is going to leave us and be replaced with good."

"Maybe we'll get rich!" Brock heard Jessie exclaim.

"I don't tink there's any 'maybe' in dat," Meowth added cheerfully.

Brock rounded his last corner and found the exuberant ex-Rocket Trio practically popping champagne in middle of the Rocket base.

"Uh, have you guys gotten all the kids out?"

The three of them jumped at Brock's voice and turned to him almost guiltily.

"We think so…" James answered unsteadily.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "These are the last of the dorms. If there are any other kids, they're probably in places we can't get to them. So yes, we're done."

Brock didn't like the sound of Jessie's answer. What if there were more kids stuck in a laboratory like Lyra was? But it would be pretty risky to just waltz into laboratories with crazed scientists. Brock closed his eyes, trying to ease his internal battle.

"Alright, let's go."

It didn't feel right in his heart, but he assuaged his mind by telling himself that they could just ask the kids out there if there was anyone missing. They would be bound to know if there were, therefore the sooner they asked them, the sooner they would know if anyone was left behind. It was the smarter decision.

With that new rested assurance, the four of them very eagerly went to leave the compound.

Noah seemed weird.

Ilse had no idea what he and that man, Lex, had been talking about or how Noah had managed to pacify him enough for her to get her parents and their Pokémon free. Noah had a thing about talking quietly so that no one except for his person of interest could hear what he was saying. She liked it because when he talked to her it made her feel like the most important person in the world. It seemed to be a trait that he shared with that man, except that he gave a few additional loud outbursts. But even those weren't enough for her to grasp any real concept of their conversation.

Maybe if she had been listening harder she would have noticed a little bit more, but all of her focus had been on getting her parents untied. This man had tried to shoot them—that definitely qualified him as a loose cannon that she had to get her parents away from as soon as possible. Adding bullet wounds to her parents was not a part of the plan.

She had thought that it would be easy just to have Noah's Sneasel cut the ropes with its impossibly sharp claws, but that wasn't the case. She had no idea what the rope was reinforced with, but it just wouldn't give. She toyed with the idea of using fire to destroy it, but the rope was far too close to everyone's bodies for that to be something that she wanted to risk. So that meant that she had to spend the whole time tackling that Mew-forsaken knot with her bare hands.

Her parents took that time to fill her in on who this man was and why he had tried to kill him. Ash had argued that he seemed to be good deep down. Misty just said that he was a Rocket and he wasn't to be trusted—he had just tried to kill them!

Ilse was inclined to agree with Misty on that one.

They babbled on with talk of Lex but got oddly reverent every time they mentioned their skirt with death just minutes before. They would share a look that Ilse politely would look away from so as not to interrupt the moment when really all she wanted to do was shout out in victory. She could see it. They were making progress again. If they were less stubborn they probably would have been kissing over her bent head.

That would have been weird, though, so for once she was glad that they were so stubborn.

But now she knew the sexual tension that Brock had told her about back in the bar. That seemed like ages ago now, even though it wasn't more than a few weeks ago. It was practically palpable even now as they went dashing through the hallway.

Speaking of the hallway…

Noah knew where he was going. That was good and took away a lot of Ilse's anxiety. However he was steering them right into hallways that had more Grunts than all of the other hallways combined. She supposed that since they were zeroing in on the offices there were a lot more important things to guard and a lot more powerful people in their way.

They were getting to the point that they couldn't even move forward anymore, even with all four of their Pokémon combined. Pikachu was taking the brunt of it by firing Electric Attacks down the hallway and he was growing fatigued. Ilse had switched out her Golduck for her Ampharos to help out, but it and the other Pokémon weren't faring too well either.

They had no choice but to go off course slightly and diverge into a different hallway than the one that was on track. Fortunately, there they found themselves in an area of temporary refuge. They all halted their onslaught in order to take a break. In the relative safety of the empty hallway, they all doubled over, trying to catch their breath.

"This isn't working," Ash panted out. "There's too many of them and they're too powerful."

Ilse wracked her brain for a plan with as few risks as possible. One gun wouldn't be enough to stop them. Sending out all of their Pokémon would just create even more hysteria. There had to be something...

Suddenly a voice rang back in Ilse's head and a light bulb lit up in her mind.

"We should use Sleep Powder in the vents!" Ilse's exclaimed excitedly.

Noah shared a knowing glance with her, albeit his eyes still looked somewhat vacant.

"That's a brilliant idea!" Ash said, a bright smile now shining on his face.

Misty gave her approval as well.

"Great!" Ilse clapped her hands together. "Okay, so we're going to have to split up again. Ash, you and Misty go farther down this hallway until you come across a vent. Have your Bulbasaur crawl in so that the Attack has nowhere else to go but into the system. You'll have to wait it out for a while to ensure that it hits the entire wing of the building before you want to risk moving again. Noah and I will keep moving down the hallway so as not to waste any extra time. Along the way, we'll take out any Pokémon that have Abilities that will make it so that they don't fall asleep so that they can't wake up any of the affected. And this way Gary will see us on the map moving and away from you, who while be still, and won't think that we're captured—instead he'll think we have a plan. Which we do," Ilse finished happily.

"Aw, why do we gotta be the ones to sit around?" Ash whined.

"Because you're the only one who has a Pokémon that knows Sleep Powder," Ilse explained.

Misty shrugged. "You can't argue with that."

"No you can't," Ilse agreed. "Alright, team. Break!"

"Hmm, who left this door open?"

May and Drew held their breath as they heard someone walking deeper into the room, shutting the door behind them with a click. Fortunately they were behind a bookshelf, so whoever came in couldn't see them. Yet.

Unfortunately they couldn't see whoever it was that came in either.

They stood up and closed the journal as quietly as they could and slipped it back into its place on the shelf so that the room looked untouched. They edged closer to the side of the bookshelf, their Pokémon on their heels, and tried to subtly peek around. In the front of the room there was a Rocket looking around the room suspiciously. They couldn't tell if this particular Rocket was a Grunt or a higher level, just based off of his obvious clearance of the room and his apparent higher-power Pokémon. At his back he had a Houndoom who was sniffing in Drew and May's direction.

Seeing this, May started moving backwards, away from the Houndoom's waiting jaws. Drew, however, seemed to have a different idea in mind. He stayed right where he was and gestured Butterfree over to him. He whispered to the Bug Type and only then did he take a step back.

Bright yellow pollen appeared from Butterfree's wings as it began flapping in the direction of the Houndoom and the Rocket.

"Drew, what are you doing?" May hissed.

Drew simply slapped his hand over May's mouth and silently shushed her.

"What's that?" the Rocket asked as the yellow powder descended down on him and his Pokémon.

Drew tossed a look to May, who was looking at him with new understanding and approval. "Good idea," she mouthed.

"I can't mm…"

Waving for May to follow him, Drew stepped out from behind the bookshelf so he was face to face with the paralyzed Rocket. He closed and locked the door and turned the lights back off so that it looked as though there was no one in the room. Something he now realized that they probably should have done earlier.

Both Drew and May then walked right over to the Rocket and his Houndoom, smug looks on their faces. Drew reached into his 'Belt and released his Masquerain.

"Ice Beam!" he called, pointing only to the Rocket.

Suddenly the Rocket's entire body became trapped in a cage of ice, save for his head.

Seeing what Drew was doing, May reached into her bag and fumbled around. After a moment, she pulled out a small, yellow bottle. She walked over to the Rocket and pried open his paralyzed mouth, pouring only about half of the bottle's contents down his throat.

The Rocket slowly but surely regained some of his range of motion, starting with a twitchy blink of his eyes and then moving to him working his jaw. His eyes also began to look kind of terrified as opposed to the previous frozen look of surprise on them.

"Wh-Who are you?"

"We'll be the ones asking questions here," Drew said with a superior arch of his eyebrow and his signature smirk. He was clearly reveling in being able to throw out a line like that.

May walked back over to their previous hiding spot and pulled out the last book that they had been looking at. She held it in front of the Rocket's face. "Explain this."

At first the Rocket just held his lips pursed, tossing the occasional glance over to his incapacitated Pokémon. Knowing there was no way out of his predicament, he eventually sighed and rolled his eyes. "That's our most recent project."

"What is?" May urged.

The Rocket threw May a scrutinizing look before dryly saying, "Uh, the book."

May practically face-faulted. "Drew, would you?" she asked, handing the book over to him.

"What she meant," Drew continued for her, glaring at the Rocket, "was give us a summary of this book and exactly what you guys are currently working on."

Again showing hesitance, the Rocket didn't speak for a few moments. Growing impatient, May looked to her Blaziken, who had been standing idly in the corner throughout the whole exchange. "Oh, Blaziken," she called in a sing-song voice.

Visibly starting at the sight of the hulking Fighting Type, the Rocket opened his mouth. "No, wait! That's not necessary." He cleared his throat. "The Boss' current main goal is not Battling Pokémon or using them as weapons of mass destruction. He wants to isolate and utilize their abilities separate from the Pokémon itself. His newest project has been hunting down Celebi and using its time travel in a human-controlled way."

"So basically using Celebi as a time travel machine," Drew clarified, leaving a bad taste in his mouth.

"Essentially yes. But he's also been working on being able to use the powers independent of Celebi. He wants humans to be able to obtain Pokémon-like Abilities."

Neither Drew nor May had anything to say to that. They just let the thought sink in. It wasn't unheard of to have Celebi send you through time, though it was only a legend to most. Even sending you to a predetermined era wasn't all that farfetched. But using the ability without the consent of the Pokémon at all was something else entirely.

Before they were given any more time to dwell on the subject, they were surprised by a light blue powder filtering into the room. Knowing immediately what it was, both Drew and May's eyes widened as they looked at each other in a panic. Frenziedly they ripped their respective bags off their persons and started looking through them for Awakenings.

But by the time their hands wrapped around the little blue bottles they were out cold on the ground.

It had been very easy to find a vent.

Ash and Misty only had to meander a small way down the hallway before finding a vent that they opened by Starmie giving it a spin-Tackle Attack. The metal grate went ricocheting a few yards down the hallway before ultimately landing on the ground with a harsh, metallic clang.

It was painfully easy. Ash had to give credit to Alyssa's plan. As much as he wasn't used to being shoved to the sidelines, he recognized the necessity of this particular deviation. A part of him hated tearing himself away from her, though. To be honest, he didn't like the idea of her risking her life in the base at all, especially without him to watch out for her. It seemed that she was doing just fine on her own, even getting he and Misty out of danger, but it just felt wrong deep inside to thrust her into such a dangerous situation.

Then again, he had to admit that she was a natural at it.

He shook off the feeling, though. On the bright side, he had Misty all to himself again, and she was more than enough of a handful to look after on her own. Not that she needed it, but he had always felt protective of her, as she always had of him. And after their last situation, he wanted nothing more than to be close to her. Being pressed side to side in that rope had been the closest they had been in nearly two days now and that fact in and of itself pained him. But as awful as being trapped by Lex was, he actually felt like they had made progress. Maybe she wouldn't pull away if he reached out for her hand…

Instead, Ash reached for Bulbasaur's 'Ball and had only just enlarged it in his hand when they heard a door swing open.

"What was that?"

A Rocket bolted into the hallway, apparently having been alarmed by the grate landing right outside her door. She narrowed her violet eyes at Ash and Misty and immediately thrust a gun out from her chest and fired, giving no hesitation.

Immediately Ash and Misty dove to the ground, trying to avoid the smattering of shots being peppered in their direction. A part of Ash was honestly surprised that this hadn't happened yet. But in all of their other confrontations they had the element of surprise, or if not that, they at least had the benefit of striking first. This girl had both of those on them.

Ash was ripped out of his thoughts by Misty letting out a cry of anguish. Had this girl hit Misty?

No more playing around. The bitch was going to pay.

"Pikachu, Thunder," Ash yelled to be heard over the ringing in his own ears.

Even though the Electric mouse was tired, it was having no trouble using its small size and agility to dodge the bullets. After rolling out of the way of one particularly close one, Pikachu leapt up into the air, launching itself in the direction of its target.

"Pi-ka pika!" the mouse shouted as it released all its energy into the single human target.

Perhaps it was overkill, but the girl immediately showed the effects of being the recipient of Pikachu's strongest Attack. The gun clattered to the ground and she soon followed, collapsing like a ragdoll, her blond hair at all ends and her body sparking with the aftershock.

Yet Ash felt no pity. Even though she was limp and unconscious on the ground, all Ash saw when he looked at her was red. He tore his angry gaze away from Pikachu's latest victim and turned to Misty who was on the ground, clutching her arm.

"Misty, what's wrong?" Ash asked desperately.

Misty shifted so that he could see. Right above where she was holding her arm, on her shoulder, was bleeding. A lot.

"It's just a graze, the bullet didn't actually go in," Misty reassured him, trying to sound light and breezy. "Don't worry about it. Let's get back to the plan"

Maybe it was just a graze, but from what they both could tell, and what Misty could feel, it was a pretty deep one. The blood was warm and sticky on her hand and showed no sign of slowing down its flow.

Reluctantly, Ash pulled away from Misty and released Bulbasaur directly into the vent. The Pokémon showed brief confusion at the crammed space but Ash quickly gave it directions, telling it to crawl deeper and release the powder. He then turned to Pikachu and Starmie.

"Stay out here and take watch while I help Misty."

He tossed Pikachu an Awakening for the Sleep Powder and lifted Misty up into his arms, rushing into the room that the Rocket had come out of. Seeing that there were no other Rockets in there, he quickly set Misty on the ground by the door and shut it behind him.

"Are you okay?" Worry was filling his eyes.

"It's not as bad as it looks," Misty said.

He knew she was lying—she wasn't looking at him.

She had tried to make herself handy while he was dealing with Bulbasaur and had taken her backpack off with quite a bit of effort. Using her good arm, she had searched through her bag for a gauzy bandage to wrap her arm in to stop the bleeding as much as she could, but she couldn't do it herself. Now Ash took the bandage out of her hands and started wrapping it tightly across the wound. Misty hissed in pain, but that was the only way to stop the bleeding. That was all he had time to do aside from cleaning all of the blood off of her arm and it would have to be good enough.

As he had begun wrapping he had also began babbling. "Misty, I'm sorry for everything, I'm so sorry for everything. We always fight about the stupidest things and just let it get out of control and I'm so sorry. Please, I love you, I love you so much."

By that point, Ash was done wrapping up Misty's arm and he was looking into her eyes earnestly. Misty reached her good arm up and touched his face, wiping away the tear droplets that had found their way into his eyelashes. "No, Ash, it was me. It was all me. I'm so sorry for everything I said to you." Suddenly her eyes widened. "Ash, the Sleep Powder!"

Ash's eyes matched hers. His thoughts had been completely focused on her—he had totally forgotten about the Sleep Powder. He began looking through his bag for an Awakening. His heart fell into his feet. He didn't have one.

"Mist, I gave my two Awakenings to Noah and Pikachu."

Misty had been looking through her own bag, albeit with one arm, and held one loosely in her hand. "I only have this one," she said worriedly.

Not even thinking about it, Ash snatched the bottle out of her hand and shoved it into her mouth before she could argue.

Misty's eyes widened in alarm as she sucked down the medicine reflexively. She looked at him, panicked for a moment as she held the healing breath in her mouth before she grabbed his face and kissed him, exhaling the remainder into his. They both inhaled the Awakening and each other. Terror and adrenaline rushed through both their systems, as they began kissing hungrily against the door.

The pale blue powder began filtering into the room, giving it a soft glow as the little particles danced around them making the surrounding a juxtaposed mix of romantic and cold and deadly.

It suited them.

Mew, he had missed this. Oh, Mew, how he had missed this. Ash wanted nothing more than to kiss her forever, but he couldn't let himself ruin this again. And then there was their actual mission to worry about…He reluctantly pulled back slightly. "We really shouldn't…" Ash started breathily.

But Misty didn't pull back. "If there's anything we've learned today, it's that we don't know how much time we have," she said intensely. "But right now we have time while we wait for the Powder to filter through the building." She nuzzled his neck as she let that fact sink in. "Let's make the most of it."

Ash lifted her up against the door and she wrapped her legs around his waist. "Deal."

"So why'd you take Ash's Awakening?" Ilse asked. "You have, like, four."

Noah smirked. "Didn't you see that look in their eyes? They just needed a little push."

Ilse furrowed her brows. "What would having only one Awakening do?"

"Only time will tell," Noah said with a wink.

Ilse rolled her eyes. "Do you really think that I'm being conceived right here in the Team Rocket compound?"

They both paused and thought about it for a second.

"Actually it does sound like something my parents would do."

"They never could just let life be simple," Noah agreed.

They had finally made it back on track to the hallway that had caused them to deviate from the path. If they were lucky, the Grunts would have dissipated, going on the search for them elsewhere. If they were unlucky, the Grunts would have been even denser in the hallway, expecting them back.

For once, they were lucky.

Of course, the hallway wasn't completely devoid of Grunts, but it wasn't swarming with them like they had anticipated. This many they could handle even while carrying a discussion with each other.

Or rather their Pokémon could handle them. Ampharos and Sneasel paired their respective Thundershock and Surf Attacks so that the hallway was surged with electrifying water. The Grunts and their Pokémon didn't stand a chance, all effectively being knocked to the ground like bowling pins. The few that needed a finishing Attack fell prey to Sneasel's Quick Attack.

This time, unlike earlier, they paced themselves. They didn't want to waste their energy by barreling through the Rockets and instead decided to be slower and more effective, all while waiting for Ash and Misty's Sleep Powder to hit. They didn't want to be caught off-guard by that—it could have dire consequences if they did—so it was best not to completely thrust themselves into Battle.

That being so, Ilse finally had the opportunity to ask what had been on her mind for the past few minutes.

"What were you talking about with that man?"

Noah froze. Fortunately Sneasel didn't need his command to keep firing Attacks down the hallway. Even still, it didn't seem like the best idea to be motionless in a busy corridor in the Team Rocket base. Plus it was strange. She had only seen him react like this a handful of times before.

Suddenly something clicked.

"Who was that man?" Ilse asked more insistently, giving Noah a concerned look.

Noah chuckled uneasily, avoiding Ilse's eyes. "Uh, turns out you're not the only one that's meeting their parents on this little adventure."

Ilse looked at him in disbelief. "That was your father?"

"Kinda. Yeah."

She didn't know what to say. It was one thing to meet the younger version of your parents when you already knew them and were actively looking for them. It was a whole other thing to meet your father for the first time only to find that they were currently a higher-up in a murderous organization.

Not to mention the fact that he had tried to kill her parents. That was the sort of thing that would make for odd family dinners. If they ever dated, that is. Which seemed to be a growing possibility…

So she decided not to say anything. Instead she walked over to him and embraced him tightly. He was always the one to make the first move, but now it only felt right that she do it. They just stood there holding each other with no words passing between them.

Just then a light blue sparkle came filtering through the vents. Still holding onto each other with one arm each, they used their other hand to suck in their Awakenings in a naturally unison gesture. They then dropped the empty bottles on the ground and wrapped their arms back around each other, the blue powder swirling around them, giving them a mystical glow.

Their Pokémon could wait.

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**A/N:** We're reaching the end guys! Only four chapters left. Unbelievable, right? After all that buildup, how could I possibly end it in only four chapters. Well, let's just say that I got the slightest bit lazy. Ah well, hope you all enjoy it nonetheless. I hope you all had a great Halloween! I didn't have nearly enough candy, but it's alright, because my mom is sending me some. Victory!**  
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